GUATEMALA CITY – Guatemalan environmentalists and authorities launched a campaign Friday to regulate whale- and dolphin-watching in the country’s Pacific waters in order to preserve these species and make sure they thrive.

“With this move we begin putting into practice the regulation of touristic cetacean-watching, which is part of a conservation strategy to use them in a non-lethal manner,” Claudia Molina, spokeswoman for the National Council of Protected Areas, or Conap, told Efe.

The initiative is a combined effort by Conap, the Guatemalan Tourism Institute, the Marine Biology Association and the MonteCarlo Verde Foundation to guarantee the safety of whales and dolphins.

Between November and March, dozens of immense whales swim along the Pacific coastline of Central America, and Guatemala has promoted the whales as a tourist attraction.

The whale-watching regulation, Molina said, is part of this country’s position as a member of the International Whaling Commission, which supports “the non-lethal use of cetaceans.”

Marine biologists say the species of cetaceans observed to date off the coasts of Guatemala include humpback whales, false killer whales and Bryde’s whales, as well as bottlenosed, spinner and common dolphins.

Whales, Molina said, are a resource that the world shares, because they don’t settle in just one place.

This regulation forms part of the strategy that Guatemala will present at June’s IWC meeting in Agadir, Morocco.

To be discussed at that meeting will be the future of the IWC commission and work-group reviews of scientific cetacean hunting, coastal hunting by Japan, sanctuaries and whale-watching. EFE