Whale Watching Worldwide

Domestic
Types of tours: A range of boat‐ and land‐based viewing
opportunities
Average adult ticket price: From $12 to $5714
Estimated employment
83
numbers:
Main whale watch season: November to April for small cetaceans (in the
south); for large cetaceans, blue whales can
be seen between January and March and
other large cetaceans between December
and March.
References:
Hoyt, E & Iñíguez, M 2008, ‘The State of Whale Watching in Latin America’, WDCS, Chippenham, UK; IFAW, Yarmouth
Port, USA; and Global Ocean, London, 60 pp..
Colombia
Year Number of
whale
watchers
AAGR Number of
operators
Direct
expenditure
Indirect
expenditure
Total
expenditure
1991 Minimal N/A N/A Minimal Minimal Minimal
1994 5,000 N/A N/A $250,000 $1,668,000 $1,918,000
1998 Minimal N/A N/A Minimal Minimal Minimal
2006 35,000 17.6% 36 $3,125,000 $5,400,000 $8,525,000
Capital City: Bogotá
Whale Watch Locations:
01: Leticia
02: Valle del Cauca
03: Golfo de Morrosquillo
04: Santa Marta
05: Cartagena
Colombia has three distinct areas for cetacean watching: the
Amazon, the Pacific coast and the Caribbean coast. The Amazon is
the busiest dolphin watching area, with around 24,000 people
taking boat‐based trips with the 22 operators based in Leticia, near
the borders with Brazil and Peru. These trips encounter both the Amazon River Dolphin, or boto, and the
tucuxi.
The operators on the Pacific coast range from fishermen with small boats to hotels that run cruises using a
range of craft. Day trips are offered, as well as multi‐day package trips. Most activity is based out of Valle
del Cauca, with approximately 10,000 visitors reported in 2006.
Dolphin watching in the Colombian Caribbean is mainly opportunistic, with other cruises making regular
sightings of marine tucuxi and bottlenose dolphins from land and boats in Golfo de Morrosquillo, Santa
Marta and Cartagena.
275