For Whales’ Sake, Group Trains Tour Guides

THE World Wildlife Fund (WWF)announced this week that approximately35 nature tour guides, boat captains andgovernment employees successfully completeda training course designed to showthem how to observe whales and dolphinswithout bothering the animals, which caninterfere with their reproductive process.According to statistics from a studyconducted by the Costa Rican Foundationfor Protection of the Sea (PROMAR) andpublished by the WWF, whale and dolphintours on the Pacific coast havebrought in more than a million dollars ayear for the past two years. The increasein the demand for the tours has resultedin a 1,300% increase in the number ofwhale and dolphin tour guides.The course was held late last monthin Drake Bay, in the country’s southernPacific region – one of the world’s mostimportant whale breeding grounds.