Watch whales - or whack 'em?

It turns out that whale watching is actually more profitable than whale whacking. Whale watching is a fast-growing tourist industry, based on a sustainable and self-renewing resource -- i.e., whales!

According to a report published last week by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW):

The new, country-by-country economic analysis shows more than 13 million people took whale watching tours last year in 119 countries worldwide, generating ticket fees and tourism expenditures of more than US$2.1 billion during 2008 (around £1.27bn).   The report also reveals dramatic growth of the whale watching industry in Asia, the Pacific, South America, the Caribbean and Europe significantly outpacing global tourism growth rates over the past decade.  More than 3,000 whale watching operations around the world now employ an estimated 13,200 people.

Commenting on the report, Patrick Ramage of the IFAW makes the somewhat obvious but obviously important point: "You can watch the same whales dozens of times, but you can only kill a whale once."

Australian Minister for the Environment, Peter Garrett, made an even pithier comment, noting "Whales are worth more alive than dead!"

Photo of Right Whale from NOAA