Whale-watching:

Awareness campaign for stakeholders

by Gamini Warushamana

Conservation (WDC) of UK launched a responsible whale and dolphin watching campaign in Sri Lanka to conserve the large sea mammals.

Vanessa Williams-Grey and Cynthia Walsh. Pic: Vipula Amarasinghe

The head of WDC whale watching program, Vanessa Williams-Grey and manager, corporate of the whales watching program of the WDC, Cynthia Walsh took part in a round-table discussion with SriLankan officials and the media in Colombo last week to discuss the campaign. This initiative will enhance local wildlife tourism industry making it more responsible and sustainable.

With the increase of tourist arrivals, the demand for whale and dolphin watching has increased but deaths and various disturbances to mammals from fishermen, ships and tourists boats have been frequently reported.

The program is a community-based responsible whale and dolphin watching initiative off the Kalpitiya, Mirissa and Trincomalee coasts of Sri Lanka and under the project they expect to encourage responsible behaviour among local boat tour operators and communities.

In addition to awareness at a community level, SriLankan Airlines now screen films by Philip Hoare and Andrew Sutton, on board its flights to highlight whales and dolphins in Sri Lanka in keeping with the WDC partnership which was signed in November 2012.

The head of WDC whale watching program Vanessa Williams-Grey said that the campaign includes advocacy and campaigning, outreach and research.WDC works to address the issues of unawareness when it comes to whale-watching for entertainment. We want to help elevate the available resources and improve it further for maximising the enjoyment of whale-watching through accurate information on safe handling of the boats to achieve a repeat business, happy whales and happy customers, she said. Cynthia Walsh said that due to media and tourism activities seas could get disturbed when trips are conducted and as a result deaths of whales and dolphins have occurred due to ship strikes. Every whale that is killed by a ship is one whale less to watch.