Chilean whale sanctuary promised
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Environmental groups are applauding the recent promise by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet to covert Chile’s entire coastline – one of the longest in the world – into a whale sanctuary. 97 percent of Chileans support the sanctuary which is a huge stop forward in terms of marine conservation.
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Nearly 50 percent of the world’s whale species pass through Chilean waters on a regular basis but furthermore, Chile hosts a sizeable population of blue whales, which come to feed and reproduce off the northern coast of Chile. Bachelet made the announcement last week as part of her annual May 21 State of the Nation speech. During June’s annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) - to be held in Santiago - she promised that Chile will condemn the capture and killing of whales for scientific purposes.
The whale sanctuary plan was first proposed in 2007 by the National Confederation of Chilean Artisan Fishermen which partnered with the Center for Cetacean Conservation and Ecoceanos, a Santiago-based environmental NGO, in lobbying Chilean government authorities. A law already in place bans whaling until 2025 and the new sanctuary would help extend that law indefinitely. In recent months the initiative has received almost universal backing; over 100 environmental groups around the planet including the Marine Connection support the proposed sanctuary.
“This is a huge triumph for the people of Chile and a strong international signal by the host country of the International Whaling Commission gathering,” said Ecoceanos Director Juan Carlos Cárdenas. “This demonstrates the effectiveness of the combined effort by environmentalist and artisan fishers, who in demanding the creation of a sanctuary were able to attract the support of 97 percent of the Chilean public.”
