The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) says ‘whale tourism’ earns more money than commercial whaling. It says that in 2008, more than 13 million nature lovers in 119 countries took sea trips to watch whales and, in so doing, earned the organisers of such trips 1.5 billion euros.

The IFAW is, therefore, advising countries that hunt whales to switch their efforts to whale tourism. One of the countries, Iceland, has already responded to the request and said both activities can coexist successfully.

This week sees the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission on the Portuguese island of Madeira. The main topic of discussion will be Japan which, despite a ban on commercial whaling, continues to hunt the mammals. It says it does so for scientific research.

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