Whale watching generates far more money than whale hunting, according to a report released at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting on Madeir in the Atlantic, reports BBC online Monday.
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Worldwide, the industry now generates about 2,1 billion US dollar per year, it says. The group commissioning the report, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw), says whaling countries would gain from a switch to whale watching.
– Whale watching is clearly more environmentally sustainable and economically beneficial than hunting, and whales are worth far more alive than dead, Patrick Ramage, director of Ifaws whale programme noted.
The report follows on the heels of an analysis commissioned by another organisation opposed to whaling, WWF, which suggested that the Japanese and Norwegian hunts were a net cost to their governments.
The Ifaw-commissioned report found that income from whale watching had doubled over the last decade, with the fastest growth seen in Asia. In 2008, it concluded, 13 million people went to sea to watch cetaceans (hvalarter) in 119 countries.
