How many times have we watched the marvelous leaps between waves by dolphins in Peru's ocean? Something that seems so natural to us is very rare in foreign seas. The German biologist Stefan Austermühle has studied these marine mammals the past four years in Peru, which gave him the idea of an activity to promote the conservation of dolphins and improve the fishermen’s lives: dolphin watching.
Few know that Peru is a privileged country in regards to dolphin watching: while at other latitudes, the possibilities of seeing a dolphin after traveling one kilometer of coast are slim, a few miles off the beaches from Chorrillos to Paracas, you can easily find three or six dolphins. Stefan Austermühle has counted them. Not only that: As if he were managing a personal register system, he constantly photographs their fins and identifies them by their cuts or scratches.
Ever since he began counting, Austermühle has accumulated over 70 thousand pictures of fins of bottlenose dolphins, or tursiops truncates, the official name. “There are 1,512 dolphins that can be seen in this part of the coast,” he says. “Six hundred of them live here permanently. The problem is that there is a black market for dolphin meat.”
A love for animals
Stefan Austermühle is not new to the issue. When he was 18 and a student in Germany, he joined the Greenpeace. He participated in other organizations and in 1998 ended up exchanging emails with Nina Pardo, who back then was the administrator of a group dedicated to animal protection in Peru. From topics of work, they moved on to more personal ones, and after several months, Stefan decided to come to Peru to marry her.
Together, they founded the NGO Mundo Azul, with which they work on environmental education and animal rescue, in addition to carrying out scientific studies that include the evaluation of our marine and sub-marine biodiversity and the types of habitats there are in our coasts.
In 1996, the NGO with which Nina worked had promoted the adoption of Law 26585 that banned dolphin hunting in Peru's ocean to sell the meat. However, shortly after initiating is operations, Austermühle found alarming evidence that suggested that this law was not being respected nor enforced. While poaching of dolphins near the coast had stopped, the biologist started to find slices of dolphin further from the coast (specifically, the Dusky Dolphin, or delfin oscuro in Spanish), where the crime is less evident.
Dolphin meat at four soles per kilo
While before 1996 it was possible to find muchame (dolphin meat) at high prices in the local supermarkets, after the ban the business migrated to a different sector. “Now, fishermen don’t touch the bottlenose dolphin; they hunt the darker dolphins instead,” says Austermühle. “Once offshore, they cut out the meat in the ship’s hold and throw the bodies back in the sea to get rid of the evidence.” This mild meat is sold at S/. 4 per kilo. Guanays, sea lions and sea turtles face the same fate.
The director of Mundo Azul estimates that, due to the lack of control and difficulty to catch the poachers red-handed, it could well be three thousand dark dolphins a year that end up filleted and illegally sold at a fish market. In the fishing town of Salaverry in Trujillo, the biologist identifies a family of fishermen that sold muchame. He reported them and three members of the family were captured but they claimed that it was the "first time" they had done it and were released shortly.
If there are so many dolphin bodies floating in the ocean or washed up on the shore, how many live dolphins are there left and what can be done to protect them? That is why Austermühle has counted over 1,500 dolphins between Chorrillos and Paracas. They are not merely decorative in the sea, they are crucial for their environment. Due their long lives (from 30 to 80 years depending on the specie), dolphins and whales are excellent indicators of the marine ecosystem’s health for their sensitivity to changes in their life conditions. Their deaths or sicknesses clearly say that something is wrong. Additionally, they are at the top of the food chain so they are in charge of eliminating sick or weak fish and cooperating in avoiding the propagation of sicknesses among other species.
Tourism for conservation
Mundo Azul makes an effort to protect dolphins while studying them and promoting them among the population giving them the possibility of sustainable development off our coasts: touristic watching of these wonderful animals playing and jumping in the waves. After working on the registering of these mammals for three years thanks to foreign donations (expeditions are expensive; an offshore 25 day investigation can cost up to 10 thousand dollars), Mundo Azul raises money for further research by guiding tourist expeditions to watch dolphins and night-time scuba diving in Pucusana.
There is no better way to maintain them in their habitat than with tourism. Stefan is sure of that. Both artisanal fishermen and dolphins alike can take advantage of this.
Program: The Best Peru Tour Peru Explorer
Pisco - Nazca Map
Few know that Peru is a privileged country in regards to dolphin watching: while at other latitudes, the possibilities of seeing a dolphin after traveling one kilometer of coast are slim, a few miles off the beaches from Chorrillos to Paracas, you can easily find three or six dolphins. Stefan Austermühle has counted them. Not only that: As if he were managing a personal register system, he constantly photographs their fins and identifies them by their cuts or scratches.
Ever since he began counting, Austermühle has accumulated over 70 thousand pictures of fins of bottlenose dolphins, or tursiops truncates, the official name. “There are 1,512 dolphins that can be seen in this part of the coast,” he says. “Six hundred of them live here permanently. The problem is that there is a black market for dolphin meat.”
A love for animals
Stefan Austermühle is not new to the issue. When he was 18 and a student in Germany, he joined the Greenpeace. He participated in other organizations and in 1998 ended up exchanging emails with Nina Pardo, who back then was the administrator of a group dedicated to animal protection in Peru. From topics of work, they moved on to more personal ones, and after several months, Stefan decided to come to Peru to marry her.
Together, they founded the NGO Mundo Azul, with which they work on environmental education and animal rescue, in addition to carrying out scientific studies that include the evaluation of our marine and sub-marine biodiversity and the types of habitats there are in our coasts.
In 1996, the NGO with which Nina worked had promoted the adoption of Law 26585 that banned dolphin hunting in Peru's ocean to sell the meat. However, shortly after initiating is operations, Austermühle found alarming evidence that suggested that this law was not being respected nor enforced. While poaching of dolphins near the coast had stopped, the biologist started to find slices of dolphin further from the coast (specifically, the Dusky Dolphin, or delfin oscuro in Spanish), where the crime is less evident.
Dolphin meat at four soles per kilo
While before 1996 it was possible to find muchame (dolphin meat) at high prices in the local supermarkets, after the ban the business migrated to a different sector. “Now, fishermen don’t touch the bottlenose dolphin; they hunt the darker dolphins instead,” says Austermühle. “Once offshore, they cut out the meat in the ship’s hold and throw the bodies back in the sea to get rid of the evidence.” This mild meat is sold at S/. 4 per kilo. Guanays, sea lions and sea turtles face the same fate.
The director of Mundo Azul estimates that, due to the lack of control and difficulty to catch the poachers red-handed, it could well be three thousand dark dolphins a year that end up filleted and illegally sold at a fish market. In the fishing town of Salaverry in Trujillo, the biologist identifies a family of fishermen that sold muchame. He reported them and three members of the family were captured but they claimed that it was the "first time" they had done it and were released shortly.
If there are so many dolphin bodies floating in the ocean or washed up on the shore, how many live dolphins are there left and what can be done to protect them? That is why Austermühle has counted over 1,500 dolphins between Chorrillos and Paracas. They are not merely decorative in the sea, they are crucial for their environment. Due their long lives (from 30 to 80 years depending on the specie), dolphins and whales are excellent indicators of the marine ecosystem’s health for their sensitivity to changes in their life conditions. Their deaths or sicknesses clearly say that something is wrong. Additionally, they are at the top of the food chain so they are in charge of eliminating sick or weak fish and cooperating in avoiding the propagation of sicknesses among other species.
Tourism for conservation
Mundo Azul makes an effort to protect dolphins while studying them and promoting them among the population giving them the possibility of sustainable development off our coasts: touristic watching of these wonderful animals playing and jumping in the waves. After working on the registering of these mammals for three years thanks to foreign donations (expeditions are expensive; an offshore 25 day investigation can cost up to 10 thousand dollars), Mundo Azul raises money for further research by guiding tourist expeditions to watch dolphins and night-time scuba diving in Pucusana.
There is no better way to maintain them in their habitat than with tourism. Stefan is sure of that. Both artisanal fishermen and dolphins alike can take advantage of this.
Program: The Best Peru Tour Peru Explorer
Pisco - Nazca Map
No comments:
Post a Comment