Promising whales offer a profitable show that could pull hundreds of communities in Latin America out of poverty.

Without considering the opportunity offered by conservation, Japan continues to hunt whales and their calves to supply the Japanese market with meat.

The Australian government presents forceful proof of the Japanese barbarism.

The sky and the ocean get blurred at the skyline and blue dominates the majestic Gulf of Panama. Suddenly, the water is agitated. One feels the presence of a giant emerging from the deep. Surprisingly, a mass as heavy as five hundred men jumps out of the water in a display of power, showing its disproportionate flippers and colossal tail fin, which forms mountains of water, foam and roar when falling. It is a large humpback whale followed by a shadow of no more than five meters. The shadow emerges. It is the small offspring showing its wrinkled front while exhaling a spurt of air that smells of the seas, and takes its time to give us a look. Seconds later, the blue mirror is reestablished. One only feels the tenuous rumor of the tropical breeze.

Through the afternoon a sea of pure silver extends as far as the eye can see. Small patches of light filter through the ceiling of clouds heavy with rain over the remote Isla del Rey, surrounded by coral reefs (older than the pyramids of Egypt), which sparkle like turquoise. From our privileged floating “auditorium” we witness the arrival of another female humpback whale followed by an entourage of gigantic suitors in the mating ritual. Close to her, a male hits the water with its tail fin and over dimensioned pectoral fins, in an overwhelming display of passion and uncommon strength, to call the female’s attention, who does not doubt in choosing him from among the trio of males. The female shows her immense and white belly which sparkles when making contact with a sun ray. Immediately, the leviathans submerge in the intimacy of the ocean in a submarine dance of unimaginable intensity. The moment is fleeting, eternal.

These encounters, far from being extraordinary, are usual in the waters that surround the ninety islands and one hundred and thirty islets that form the Las Perlas archipelago, in the Panamanian Pacific Ocean. This Eden, covered with important tropical forests, fountains of fresh water and the largest extension of coral reefs of all the Gulf of Panama, becomes the ideal stage for observation of the humpback whales that arrive from the distant south to give birth and breed, between July and October. This fact demands a coastal marine ordering and the pertinent training of operators cautious of existing rules in the tourist management of this resource. If not, as the experience shows in other countries in the region, the whales choose to look for other more tranquil safe havens and the business disappears.

Whale watching is a global business practiced by about nine million people and it represents more than a billion dollars per year. To measure its benefits, a good example is Argentina. The province of Chubut reports income for over sixty million dollars per year for whale watching. Ecuador, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile and Brazil also have registered millionaire sums, which demonstrate that conservation is good business for the coastal-marine communities.

In fact, although the world knows more and more about these beautiful emblematic giants, there still are many doubts and scientific debate about their habits. It is known that humpback whales from the southern hemisphere mate between June and September in tropical waters, migrate to the poles and then return to the tropics, one year after gestation, to give birth. At one month of birth, the whale calf, that measures five meters and weighs one ton, is an insatiable feeder: It drinks about fifty to one hundred gallons of milk per day. During nursing it closely follows its mother, who measures more than fourteen meters and can weigh between twenty five and forty tons.

One of the more interesting characteristics of these cetaceans is the complexity of their songs, with which they communicate through incredible distances, demonstrating their sensibility, social sense and intelligence. These sophisticated melodies become heart rendering moans when the whales are harpooned and carved up while agonizing in a sea of blood on board of the Japanese whaling vessels, which practice what they call “hunting for scientific ends”. Thus, they continue with the killing and the cruelty of their methods before the rejection and general displeasure of the civilized world.

Japan intends to reopen the commercial hunting of whales for human consumption, industrial uses and pet food. For this, they try to obtain more votes in their favor with the purpose of ending the moratorium that was imposed, since 1986, by the International Whaling Commission, an entity formed by a group of countries, created more than four decades ago to regulate whale hunting before the dramatic decrease that brought many species close to their imminent extinction.

The footsteps of barbarism seem to have no end and Japan has not ceased in its demential race for the annihilation of the cetaceans. Recently, the Australian government, presented photographs taken by crew members of the ship Ocean Viking which show the hunting with non-scientific ends perpetrated by the Japanese whaling boats in 2008. In the image one can see a mother and a small minke whale calf harpooned and carried on board the Japanese ship. Peter Garrett, Australian Minister of the Environment, leads a legal fight of his government against Japan and promotes vigilance of the Japanese whaling operations. In an alert call to the world he said: “It is very disheartening, it is anguishing to think that it can take some fifteen minutes, from when the harpoon reaches the whale until it dies, and it is even sadder to think that there is a calf involved.”

The Australians have taken an ethical and praiseworthy attitude, watching out for the Japanese whalers from the Ocean Viking, recording their operations to take the guilty of such a bloody spectacle to the international courts. An example that all those nations that consider these practices as indecent and uncivilized should repeat in their own territorial waters as a safeguard of a great friend and intelligent associate of human beings.

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