Government reiterates its intention to declare Chilean waters a sanctuary for whales

SANTIAGO.- According to the sub secretary of Marine Resources, Carolina Echeverría, the declaration of a whale sanctuary, which would prohibit the commercial and scientific hunting of cetaceans within Chilean national waters, may be nearly ready.

Echeverría stated that the law will be passed on to Congress during the next few weeks and, if it is approved, the more than 4,000 kilometers of Chilean coastline (implying a surface area of some 5.3 million square kilometers) will become a sanctuary for whales.

The announcement comes days before the 60th annual meeting of the International Whale Commission (IWC), which will be held in Santiago from the 23rd until the 27th of June to address the matter of global sanctuaries.

The law proposal also establishes criminal penalties for those who cause harm to the whales within Chilean waters.  “We are leading the protection measures in Latin America already with just one law proposal or one law being applied”, added Echeverría.