CENTRAL government Environment ministry director, Miguel Aymerich, gave a warning yesterday in Palma about the risks that Whale Watching tourism could pose for marine mammals in the Mediterranean and the Straits of Gibraltar.
The director also spoke out against the damage that is inflicted to these animals by uncontrolled dragnet fishing.
Yesterday was the start of a four-day Save the Whale meeting of the marine mammal conservation group, Accobams, being held at the Hotel Melia Palas Atenea. Around 100 experts aim to establish effective action plans for the conservation of whales and dolphins in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and adjacent Atlantic Areas.
Aymerich believes it is necessary to control the tourist presence in areas known to be inhabited by whales and dophins. He claimed that there are thousands of enthusiasts in the whale watching industry and that nuisance caused by limitless visitors, could interfere with the natural lives of marine mammals.
The director went on to confirm that the issue of controlling some forms of fishing, which are potentially damaging to the lives of whales and dophins, will come under review by the conservation group. He suggested that the problem was not that there were not already laws which set out to control indiscriminate dragnet fishing, but that there were not suffiiciently strong measures of enforcing them. Aymerich condemned known cases of fisherman unjustifiably ill-treating marine mammals.
He insisted that agreements reached at the Save the Whale conference should be adopted by all member countries (from Europe, North Africa and the Black Sea area), so that protection measures were launched on an international basis.
The secretary general of the regional Environment ministry said that the Balearic government had a programme of support for marine mammals in distress and a policy of respecting their habitat.
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