I’ve returned from Sao Tome and Principe (STP) last Thursday, where I gave a presentation at a conference about Biodiversity and Ecotourism. The title I presented was “The non-lethal use of Cetaceans – a multidisciplinary perspective”. It basically covered the uses cetaceans can withstand nowadays (whaling is not one of them), recommendations to the STP’s government and a challenge for STP to declare their national waters a sanctuary for cetaceans.
Interestingly enough, the day I arrived a commission of STP’s government headed to Japan where they signed a bilateral agreement on fisheries, presumably to do with tuna. My opinion is that the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and whaling issue was on the agenda, and STP is at risk of joining the IWC and vote with Japan to uplift the moratorium of 1986.
Beside the forum I had the chance to speak with some people of the government, tourism agencies and people interested in developing sustainable ecotourism and the press. I also manage to get a letter from 10 different organizations to the president himself. One can only hope STP is not signing the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW).
Also, there will be published a book with the presentations given at the forum, so I will have the chance to make a point on why whaling is not acceptable today and how Whale-Watching can be of a great help to the local community.