The whales are safe!

06.Sep.2013

A WHALE SANCTUARY WAS CREATED

The Chamber of Representatives voted unanimously for the bill of law to create a whale and dolphin sanctuary in Uruguay. For Rodrigo García, director of the OCC, “it’s huge progress because it puts the country in a position of privilege internationally”.

On Tuesday, the Chamber of Representatives unanimously voted the bill of law for the dolphin and whale sanctuary in all Uruguayan waters. The bill was approved in May by Senators but with changes which is why it had to go through Representatives again. 

In Latin America there are already sanctuaries in Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, México, Panamá y República Dominicana.

The initiative was approved a year after the OCC presented the initiative together with a group of children from schools in Maldonado and Rocha. 

The bill declares Uruguayan waters “a sanctuary of Whales and Dolphins, with the objective of assuring presence of cetaceans in our waters which, due to the importance for their reproductive and migratory activities, are of vital importance for the continuity of these species”.

The law also prohibits any activity which could lead to death, hunting, capture, aggression, harassment, possession, transport, unloading or any type of transformation process, commercialization or storage of any cetasean species which inhabits or passes through Uruguayan waters, no matter the nationality of the embarkations. 

According to the OCC there have been 26 cetasean species registered in our waters.