From November 3rd to 5th, government representatives who are members of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) attended a Workshop on Whale watching held in the city of Puerto Madryn, Chubut province, in which also tour operators of this activity around the world participated.

During the 62nd IWC plenary meeting (about CBI) held in Agadir, Morocco, in last June, this organization approved a workshop for drawing up a Project on a Whale watching Five-Year Plan, which will then be subjected to consideration by the Commission during its next plenary meeting in 2011. As decided by the IWC, this workshop got together more than 20 representatives from various countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Greenland, Guadalupe Island, Iceland, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States) all of them with different experiences and development of whale watching. After the official opening ceremony and activities that included several whale watching trips in Puerto Pirámides for the participants of the workshop on the 2nd of November, during the three days of work, scheduled between 3rd and 5th, the participants worked on a proposal which will then be submitted to the IWC and is expected to contain recommendations for the development of or modification of the current way in which the activity is carried out throughout the globe.

Although Fundación Cethus did not participate in this activity, one of its members attended the meeting as consultant on IWC issues for the Foreign Ministry. Asked about it, Miguel Iñíguez said: "This has been a work that has been achieved thanks to the management that Argentina (both from the government sector, as the NGOs) has been performing on the conservation of cetaceans for a long time now and for that reason we are proud that this workshop is held in our country, particularly in a highly symbolic place for the conservation of whales such as Península Valdés". At the same time, he thanked the opportunity and support provided by the Argentinian Foreign Ministry, the Government of the Province of Chubut, the Governments of Australia and the United States and the NGO World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA).

For Cethus, and all the work that it has been carrying out on issues related to the IWC for more than 10 years, this has also been an important achievement as we consider it is a very important precedent to reaffirm the conservation position within this Committee.

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