The Potential of Whale Watching in the Caribbean: 1999+

infrastructure or other building. A land-based component would also serve to
promote whale watching by boat, as many tourists who see whales from land
then want a closer look.
2. Dolphin watching is virtually unexplored in the Dominican Republic. Dolphins
are sometimes seen on the whale watch trips in Samaná Bay. The species sighted
are mainly spotted dolphins with occasional pilot whales.
At Parque Nacional del Este, in the southeastern part of the DR, there is a
group of dolphins resident year-round. These dolphins could be considered for
ecotour possibilities. As they live inshore, there may also be a potential landbased
component. There are also bottlenose dolphins found to the northwest of
Puerto Plata, but they have not been studied. Dolphins are no doubt found in
other areas, but surveys would need to be conducted — perhaps by the national
parks as part of biodiversity inventories.
3. The third suggestion is to expand the whale-watching boat tours to include
dolphins, land-based whale watching and ecotourist explorations of nearby places
such as Los Haitises National Park, on the south shore of Samaná Bay, where
there are ancient whale paintings on the cave walls. This would create a more
well-rounded cultural and ecological whale watch tour and provide a bigger
reason for tourists to go whale watching.
At the sanctuary on Silver Bank, whale watching has grown slowly since the
sanctuary was established due to its offshore location which requires much longer trips
than at Samaná. It is 50 miles (80 km) from the north coast of the Dominican Republic.
Most boats leave from Puerto Plata but others have left from the Turks & Caicos or even
from Florida ports. Besides a few thousand humpbacks which spend the winter there,
whale watchers can sometimes see bottlenose, spotted and spinner dolphins, pilot whales
and even Bryde's whales and various beaked whales. The season for humpbacks is January
to March. In 1993 about 200 people were going whale watching on Silver Bank, and this
has climbed slowly and was approaching 500 in 1998.
In recent years, there have been persistent reports from Silver Bank of aggressive
approaches by boats dropping off swimmers to encounter the whales. In the early 1990s, it
had been recommended by Silver Bank's scientific advisors that no swimming be allowed
with the whales because of the safety concerns of too many people in the water with
whales on their mating grounds. The surface active groups of humpback whales often
behave without apparent concern for other whales, tail lashing and charging at each other,
and there was concern for the humans who might get caught in the water and not have
enough time to return to their boats. Dominican conservationists and marine researchers
have repeatedly voiced their fears about this happening due to the difficulty of policing
this offshore area. The remote location of Silver Bank means that it is difficult to monitor,
but the remoteness has at least served as a cap on the number of people watching or
swimming with whales there. Still, some action clearly needs to be taken before whale
watching and swimming with whales results in a serious accident, which could result in
loss of human life, tarnishing the reputation of whale watching as well as possibly having
an impact on the conservation of the whales.
Most whale watch locales of any size develop growing pains, though the
Dominican Republic has certainly had a little more than its share. But these struggles have
produced positive change and new ideas. The Dominican Republic has the potential to
become a world class humpback whale watching centre, putting its unique brand on whale
watching and promoting the local cultural experience. Within a few years, with a focusing
of effort and continued improvement, the potential for doubling the existing numbers and
economy based on whale watching is definitely there.
As this report was being completed in early May, the announcement came that the
DR government, after considerable national and international pressure, has decided to
restore the 1996 marine mammal sanctuary (subsequently revoked in 1997) that had
included not only Silver Bank, but Navidad Bank and the Samaná area. The new
presidential decree designating the 'Marine Mammal Sanctuary of the Dominican
Republic' is No. 136-99. On May 5, 1999, the first meeting of the new Comisión para la
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