Official
Regulations
The following are the general regulations for whalewatching operations
for humpback whales in Francisco Coloane National Marine
Park, translated following as much as possible the original structure text. CMMR Leviathan's comments are in green.
- Whalewatching
boats in the area must
be authorized
by the Maritime Authority (Chilean Navy), must comply with
its
regulations for navigation and safety in the sea, and
must have
the technical assistance of a certified tourism guide aboard.
Note: Only boats are addressed in the regulations, excluding the use of fixed coastal
platforms. Land-based platforms should be the main tool for viewing, considering the fjords' geographical
conditions as well as that the platforms would be non-invasive.
There are other cetacean species present that
will become
harrassed by the boats as well as those that voluntary approach
to them. Therefore, the regulations should have included the behaviour
to adopt with other cetacean species. The regulations are limited to
the park limits instead of to the activity itself. The impacts of the
boats between the ports and the park are not regulated nor
mitigated. As the cetaceans targeted by whalewatching in the park are
migratory species and the area is mainly fjords, we can expect that
these same whales will be viewed outside of the parks limits.
Such activities are expected to occur primarliy at the park's
southeastern end, closer to the main city of Punta
Arenas.
- The length
of the boats used
for whalewatching is required to be between 6 and 20
meters,
allowing a
maximum of two boats to do observation activities
simultaneously.
Notes:
The presence of more than one boat simultaneously approaching the whales
can induce a competition
between the boats to get closer to the whales. There
are no local scientific investigations to support
the decision
of using simultaneously more than one boat, and this is not congruent
with international experience either.
- The use of
helicopters or aircrafts for whalewatching over
the park is specifically prohibited.
- The boats
approaching humpback whales are required to have their
propeller
protected,
in order to avoid possible injuries to the animals during eventual
encounters or some individuals run away.
Notes:
If the
right approaching
maneuvers are properly enforced there should be no physical
contact, nor trauma, nor any reason for an indiviual whale to fear
and run
away. However, the CMMR Leviathan on its proposal of regulation included to cover the propellers, mainly
because
this significantly diminishes underwater noise.
- The use of vessels
with propellers for lateral maneuvers like "thrusters" is not permitted.
- The
boats used for whalewatching activities are not permitted to use two
stroke engines (in order to
avoid explosive noise for which waves travel in the water at
higher
speeds and can cause acoustic damage to the animals).
- The use
of boats for one person (jet ski or others) for whalewatching,
as well as to approach to humpback whales,
is prohibited.
- The boats observing
humpback whales are required to keep a minimum distance
of 100 meters from the nearest animal to the boat. The boats are
required to prevent from interfering or producing any negative
consequence
to
the animals that are feeding, in rest or in movement.
Note:
The only local scientific study regarding approach methods
for cetaceans demonstrates that the best method of approach
is consistent with international standards; the
double ratio or indirect system. This indicates that the regulations
were not based on the best scientific information available.
The double ratio is needed in order to control the approaches
when more than one boat is present. See
double ratio method here....
- Las maniobras de
acercamiento
deberán realizarse desde la parte posterior de los animales
y en
forma paralela al desplazamiento de éstos, con el
propósito de evitar que el ruido del motor cause
perturbación en los animales o en el conjunto de su grupo.
- In order to prevent the engine noise from disturbing the
animals or the group, approaches are required to be made from behind the animals and parallel to their
movement direction.
Notes:
This regulation is extremely problematic. To approach from behind is
the same as chasing the whales. Any approach should be from both behind
and the side (45º) until reaching the allowed distance to the
animals and from there the course should be the same one of the whales
in order not to become a chase.
Under the laws of some countries, the Chilean government's
standard for approach to humpback whales in this park, could even
result
in imprisonment...
- If any behavior
change is
observed in the animals, or reject behavior like lobtailing and/or
changes in the original swimming direction before the approach of the
boat, an abandon of the observation place shall proceed, retreating to a distance of at least 200 meters.
- When the individuals have
calves, special precautions on the approach are required. The
approach will always be by the mother's side,
avoiding to place the boat between the two animals.
- The minimum distance
to approach to females with a calves is 100 meters.
- The speed
of the boats
during approach and abandon maneuvers must be kept constant, without
exceeding 4 knots. But in case of finding an animal group or a humpback
whale school, the speed of the boats should not exceed the speed of the
slowest
animal, and avoiding to make sudden direction or course changes.
Notes:
These regulation has no sense because to accomplish this direction with
a posterior approach, it is impossible for a boat to reach the whales.
The solution is to correct the course of approach.
- During the time of the more
direct observation, the boat should keep with the engine functioning
and in neutral position in order to avoid the changes of speed y and
their consequent noises to cause any disturbance between the animals
and to keep the area visitors safety.
- At finalizing the observation,
the abandon of the place should be slow and in opposite direction to
the movement direction of the animals.
- The daily
observation time from tourist and visitors in the Marine Park should
not exceed the five (5) hours.
Notes:
The only scientific local study that review the duration time of
whalewatching indicates that five hours is to much. It should be a
maximum of three hours on an initial step, and until it is demonstrated
with independent studies, that there's habituation from the whales.
- During the month of
December, January, February and March, the total time of daily
observation from
the tourist in the Park, should not exceed the six (6) hours.
- On the other hand,
the observation time from animals by each boat should not be higher than 30 minutes.
- It will be
obligation of the
captain's boat to have the respective license given by the Maritime Authority and he will be the only responsible of
the observation maneuvers.
- It will be
obligation of the captain's boat to minimize the noise
aboard (music, noise artifacts and horns) before, during and after the
humpback whale observation activities.
- The previous is not excluding the responsibilities that correspond to the administrative entity of the
Marine and Coastal Protected Area- XII region.
- The tourism guides, should be
trained on the knowledge of the area as
well as in identification of the different cetacean and marine mammals
of the region, and to know the regulations of this resolution.
- It will be
obligation of the tourism guides to be incorporated in the records that will manage the Service for this purpose.
Notes: there
are several "Services" in the Chilean government, but we believe that
it is indicating to the "National Fisheries Service", which is expected
to become the main manager of the marine parks and reserves in Chile.
- The inscription in
the records previously mentioned will be understood as a requisite
to work as
a tourism guide with the intention of offering assistance, to the
actions of humpback whale observation in waters of the"Francisco
Coloane" Marine Park, located in the Marine Coastal Protected Area -
XII
region.
- Any diving activity for tourism
purposes is prohibitted inside the Marine Park. The only
exception is for those activities for scientific purposes and that are
included in the General Administration Plan.
- It's prohibited to
throw any kind of garbage or organic waste inside the park.
- The boat must have visibly posted, the banner published by the "Dirección General del
Territorio
Marítimo y Marina
Mercante" related to the prohibition of throwing any kind of
garbage to the sea. The banner must be placed aboard and on the port. The trash will be destinated to a municipal garbage dump
or in defect will be disposed according the respective normative.
- The
humpback whale
observation
activity inside of the "Francisco Coloane" Marine
Park, located
in the Marine Coastal Protected Area - XII region, that disobey
the
present norms, according to the article Nº 107, will be punished
accordingly to the article Nº 116 of the "Fishing and Acuiculture
General Law".
- The present
resolution will be able to be impugned by the interposition of a
"reposition resource" according to the article Nº 59 of the Law
Nº 19.880, to this same Service
and within 5 working days counting from the publication in the
"Official Newspaper", without detriment of
the clarification of the act dispose in the article Nº 62 of
the
cited legal body and the other actions and resources that correspond
according with the valid normative.
Note:
Notes: Only a few details to consider, but in the general this norms
are adequate and a good beginning. We congratulate the team work
of the Undersecretariat of Fisheries (SSP) and the National Fisheries
Service (SERNAPESCA). Despite that this Resolution has been received by
all the enforcing agencies, it has not yet been published on the
Official Newspaper.
CMMR
Leviathan Proposal of Regulations (October de 2005)
The proposal of regulation for "Francisco Coloane Marine Park" that the CMMR Leviathan proposed to
the Undersecretariat of Fisheries (SSP) in October 2005 (Document 0405-2), was based on our
first proposal of whalewatching regulation (See: Regulation
Proposal for Whalewatching)
and the document 03/10-PL2 elaborated by the CMMR Leviathan combined
with our local studies and consulting recognized specialists (Sanino G.P. et al.,
2004). Here, we are only indicating some notes and the main differences
for "Francisco Coloane Marine Park" with modifications according to the characteristics of the zone.
The main difference with the
proposed regulations for the III and IV regions is that the "Francisco
Coloane" Marine National Park, has confined water due to the fjord
environment. This has direct impact in two main issues to
consider: the sounds and noise trend to be reflected by
the
underwater landscape of the fjords, and the space is more limited than
in open waters restricting the path to almost only the fjord's direction in an eventual attempt
of a whale to avoid the boats without getting near the coastline.
Plataformas de
observación:
las hay tanto de tierra como de mar, móviles como
estáticas. Si bien esto fue descrito con detalle en nuestra
propuesta, las normas sólo han considerado a las
embarcaciones.
Dado que se trata de fiordos, y con una gran belleza
escénica en
su litoral, es que existen condiciones excelentes para implementar
plataformas fijas en el borde costero, sin que sean necesarias
embarcaciones y con ello evitar infrinjir cualquier impacto. Distinto
es el caso del mar abierto. Se debiera aprovechar
más las
condiciones geográficas de la zona.
Observation Platforms:for
land or for sea, mobile or static. This was described in detail on our
proposal. The valid regulations only consider boats. Given the fjords
landscape and the beauty of their coast, the conditions to place
platforms in the coastal border are excellent, making not necessary
boats and with that avoiding any impact. Different is the open sea
situation. The proposal should take in consideration the geographical
conditions of the zone.
Operators: the
area of this marine park has been commercially exploited with
whalewatching activities long time before having regulations in place.
At this moment exist a virtual corporate monopoly that should be opened
to other actors. Dr. A.K. Lescrauwaet is maybe the scientist with more
experience in cetacean study on these fjords, and she has worked also
with local communities. In our opinion, her experience should be used
to involve localcommunities on the use of this national patrimony.
Seguridad:
Adicionalmente a las normas que propusimos y fueron incorporadas,
existe una norma que no fue incorporada y nos parece muy relevante para
la seguridad. Los turistas suelen moverse en las embarcaciones
intentando acercarse a los animales, tomar fotos, etc. En una
embarcación, sería muy peligroso que
los truristas
estuvieran de alguna forma sujetos a las sillas. Pero
este desplazamiento de personas y su peso, modifica el balance
de
la embarcación por lo que
recomendamos completar hasta
un 50% de la dotación máxima de la
embarcación,
excepto para el caso de embarcaciones policascos como catamaranes y
trimaranes que proveen de mayor estabilidad.
Security:Additional
to the regulations we propose and that were incorporated there is
another regulation that was not incorporated and we think is very
relevant for security. The tourist usually move on the boat trying to
reach the animals, take pictures, or other, this movements change the
balance of the boat and could be dangerous. On a boat it'll be very
dangerous that tourist will be attach to their sits. We recommend that
every boat complete just the 50% of it's maximum capacity, excepts for
cases of boats catamaran or trimaran like that are more stable.
Método de Acercamiento:
nuestra experiencia en las islas costeras del norte de Chile, incluye
el estudio de formas de acercamento también a
ballenas
jorobadas. Las formas de de acercamiento que hemos propuesto para
dichas islas son un modelo demostrado de funcionalidad. Sin embargo,
fueron diseñados en aguas abiertas y no aguas confinadas
como
las de los fiordos. No se puede considerar un fiordo como igual en
condiciones que elmar abierto. En consecuencia, es esperable que el
estrés ocurra más en ejemplares en aguas
confinadas. Por
esto, nuestra propuestta es utilizar el modelo de doble radio pero con
magnitudes 50% mayores que en mar abierto. Ver
métodos de doble radio aquí...
Approach Maneuvers: CMMR
Leviathan's experience in coastal islands in the north of
Chile also includes
approaches to humpback whales. The approach we proposed for the
North is a functional model. However, these were
designed for open waters and not confined waters like those in the
fjords of the south. A fjord cannot be considered similar to open
waters. It is
very possible to see stress in individual in confined waters. For this
reason our proposal includes the double ratio model
but with 50% larger
magnitudes than in the open sea. See
double ratio system...
Embarcaciones:
nuestra propuesta es que estas naves no sean mucho mayores que el
tamaño corporal de las ballenas, con una eslora
máxima de
30 piés. El número de embarcaciones ha sido
tácitamente regulado al limitar su tiempo de presencia
diaria y
el número de éstas en proximidad con las
ballenas. Es
posible que sea funcional pero consideramos que es de muy
difícil fiscalización. Esto ha sido siempre un
tema
complejo porque el limite por número de embarcaciones tiende
al
monopolio de la actividad.
En cambio, nuestra propuesta es que el número
de embarcaciones autorizadas sea cualquiera en tanto que la
suma
de sus esloras sea menor a 50 metros y que sólo una pueda
acercarse a la vez a las ballenas. Esto permite la
modernización
de las embarcaciones y mayor fexibilidad en el mercado.
Boats: We
proposed that these ships should not be much larger than the
size of the whales, with a maximum length of 30 feet.
The
number of boats have been regulated by limiting their
daily presence time and the number of the approaches to the whales. It is
possible that this will be functional but we consider this very difficult
to enforce. This has been a complex issue also because
the limits
on the number of boats tends to create a monopoly of the
whalewatching activities.
Our proposal is that
the number of
authorized boats might be any amount as long as the length of
all
the boats together has a maximum of 50 meters and that only one of them can
get close to the whales at a time. This allows for the modernization of
boats and more flexibility in the market.
Horarios y duraciones:
la actividad turística no debe interrumpir o interferir con
las
actividades naturales de los cetáceos (dormir, comer,
alimentar
a sus cría, etc). Todas las normas pueden adaparse
conforme
los animales se adaptan a la prencia humana, pero es un proceso
paulatino que debe ser iniciado bajo un principio de
precausión.
Se ha determinado que los horarios de alimentación son los
más pertinentes para el turismo dado que las ballenas
describen
menos mobilidad, los botes pueden estar detenidos y el
interés
por alimentarse es superior al temor que las embarcaciones ejercen.
Ciertamente, en horarios de sueño, o alimentación
de sus
crías no debieran ser perturbadas. Así los
estudios de
conducta de estos cetáceos debieron haber sido desarrollados
antes de implementar actividade turísticas. Recomendamos un
máximo de 30% de interacción diaria, para un
inicio.
Contribución
del CMMR Leviathan e Información complementaria
La
contribución del CMMR Leviathan en el proceso de
produción de normas para mitigar los efectos negativos del
turismo de observación de cetáceos incluye el
desarrollo de estudios científicos locales, publicaciones
científicas, revisiones bibliográficas
internacionales tanto técnicas en aspectos de
gestión de recursos naturales como legales y
biológicos, propuestas de normas re degulación y
documentos técnicos en colaboración con las
autoridades administrativas.
Estos documentos pueden ser solicitados al e-mail: research@leviathanchile.org
- HOYT, E. 2005.
“Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and
Porpoises: A World Handbook for Cetacean Habitat
Conservation”. Hoyt,
E. Earthscan, London. 512pp.
G.P. Sanino contributed with information about Chile's status.
- SANINO, G.P. 2005.
“Main Considerations to Regulate Walewatching Activities in
the
Francisco Coloane, marine protected area, Chile”. Technical
document 0405-2 presented to the Chilean Undersecretariat of Fisheries,
April 2005. 5pp. [In Spanish]
- SANINO, G.P. 2005.
"Aircrafts and Cetaceans". Technical document 0404-LEV
presented
to the Chilean Undersecretariat of Fisheries, April
19th 2005. 4pp. [In Spanish]
- SANINO, G.P.,
MARTINEZ, S., YAÑEZ, J.L., STOCCO, R., VAN WAEREBEEK, K.,
HOYT E., FERNANDEZ P., and J.L. ALLENDES. 2004.
“Proposal of Review for the Regulations of Commercial and
Scientific Activities related to Cetaceans in Chile”.
Comprehensive review and analysis of the Chilean laws related to marine
mammals, proposal of regulation for whalewatching and scientific
activities and update of the known cetacean diversity in Chile.
Technical document 03/10-PL2 presented to the Chilean Undersecretariat
of Fisheries, October 2004. 60pp. [In Spanish]
- SANINO, G.P. y
YÁÑEZ, J. 2001.
“New technique for video identification and population size
estimation for cetaceans, applied to bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus,
from Choros island, IV region of Chile”. Boletín
del Museo
Nacional de Historia Natural (Chile). 50: 37-63 (2001) [In Spanish]
- SANINO, G.P. y
YÁÑEZ, J. 2001.
“Study of a Globicephala
melas
individual stranded in the III Region and review of the genus for
Chile”. Boletín del Museo Nacional de Historia
Natural
(Chile). 50: 21-36 [In Spanish]
- SANINO, G.P. y
YÁÑEZ, J. 2000.
“Preliminary effects of Whalewatching in Punta de Choros,
Chile”. Revista Gestión Ambiental (Chile). 6:
41-53 [In Spanish]
- SANINO, G.P.,
GALÁZ, J. L., YÁÑEZ J.y CAPELLA, J.
1996.
“New record of a Cuvier's beacked whale, Ziphius cavirostris,
Cuvier 1823 in Chile and review of the previous cases". Noticiario
Mensual del Museo Nacional de Historia Natural (Chile). 325:
33-37 [In Spanish]
|
