MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Whale hunting ban is not enough to protect sanctuary”

A recent proposal to make Chile's entire coastline as a no-hunt whale sanctuary may not be enough to safeguard Chile's whales, according to world-renowned marine biologist and conservationist advocate Rodrigo Hucke-Gaete.

Huckle-Gasete director of the Blue Whale Center (CBA), a Chilean NGO, says hunting is far from the only threat against the precariously endangered giants of the deep. On May 21, Chile's President Michelle Bachelet announced her intention to extend the current whale-hunting ban indefinitely and her plan to send a bill to Congress declaring the whole of Chile's coastline permanently off-limits to whale hunting. "President Bachelet's announcement to make Chile a hunting-free zone for whales is an important step, but it doesn't solve any of the immediate problems related to the quality of Chile's coastal waters," said Hucke-Gaete. "That is the next step – recognizing that things aren't as good as we think and changing our environmentally destructive practices." The biologist insisted that the salvation of the planet's largest mammal depends on the creation of multi-use protection zones. Such protected areas would be managed according to comprehensive plans that take into account water quality, human activity and the impact of industrial development. Elsa Cabrera, director of the Cetacean Conservation Center, said that Hucke-Gaete's stance doesn't diminish the significance of the hunting ban. The ban is critical to warding off Japanese efforts to resume whale-hunting on a grand scale, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere, Cabrera said. She agreed, however, that more work remains. "It is true that there is a growing number of threats for whales," Cabrera told The Santiago Times. "But to address them effectively, it is first necessary to develop a national policy of marine conservation that offers the necessary guarantees for conservation and recovery of whale species." Cabrera added that, currently, not enough is known to establish criteria for effective whale-protection zones. To do so prematurely would create empty regulations that would not guarantee the protection of whales in Chilean waters. Hucke-Gaete said the Chilean government is conscious of this need and is funding the development of baseline information for the zone in conjunction with University Austral. "Once Chile's National Environmental Agency (CONAMA) has all the information, I hope they will take immediate action to implement proposed conservation recommendations," Hueke-Gaete said. "Certainly, these should be developed with the communities that live in these areas, because they know better than many scientists how the system functions." By the end of 2009, the biological, socioeconomic and tourist baseline information, along with the conservation proposals, should be available. "The most likely scenario is that the plan includes various recommendations, among them that the (multi-use protected areas) are important tools," Hucke-Gaete said. The biologist also took aim at Chile's salmon industry in remarks made early this week. "We worry about the industry's southward shift, because we don't know what the impact is going to be on the ecosystem," he said. "We're troubled by the use of antibiotics, the loading of nutrients into the water through feed, the rising levels of nitrogen and phosphorus caused by salmon feces. We hope the industry can conduct carrying-capacity studies in Aysén (how much human activity – maritime traffic, fishing industry, etc. – the ecosystem can resist), because the problems out there aren't only being caused by salmon operations." Hucke-Gaete added that since he and his colleagues have been studying whales and dolphins in the zone, they have observed significant levels of agricultural waste entering coastal waters. "It's very common to find waste from the salmon operations - plastic, rope, salmon-feed bags, and other refuse," he said. "The industry is going to continue redistributing. But we can't afford, after 20 years of development, not to learn from the mistakes." Hucke-Gaete presented his research last Tuesday to the scientific committee of the International Whale Commission (IWC), whose 60th meeting will take place in Santiago June 23-27. Dozens of researchers of all nationalities will meet at the conference, in the Sheraton hotel. Chile will present with a delegation of 14 people, led by biologist Anelio Aguayo, one of Chile's top experts on whale species. The Santiago Times