THE WHALES HAVE ARRIVED
The whales arrived at the bay and, like every year at ecobac, we are working to make their stay pleasant so they can carry out their courtship and breeding activities.
This year the official whale watching season began December 8 and ends March 23, 2019, according to the notice issued in the DOF (acronym in Spanish for Official Journal of the Federation), by SEMARNAT. As always we recommend you to observe whales only aboard authorized boats, which can be distinguished by the flag. If you own a boat, remember that you must stay at least 240 meters (800 feet) away from the whale. You can check and download the guidelines for whale watching at http://www.ecobac.org/mexican-whale-watching-regulations/?lang=en
RABEN
The National Network of Assistance to Entangled Whales (RABEN, acronym in Spanish) is already in full action. On December 6, 2018, a meeting was held in the API (acronym in Spanish for the Port Administration, Puerto Vallarta) meeting room to review the theory of Procedures and Events of Whale Disentanglement with the members of RABEN Banderas Bay. 36 participants from Bahía de Banderas attended (Puerto Vallarta, Nuevo Vallarta and Cruz de Huanacaxtle). On Friday, December 7, 2018, we continued reviewing the practice at sea with 4 boats. Attendees from the 8th Naval Zone, PROFEPA inspectors, representatives of INAPESCA, CONANP, Harbor Master and API Puerto Vallarta, members of the Technological Institute of Banderas Bay, Bahía Unida AC, ECOBAC and tour operators of Dolphin Adventure, Explora Vallarta ,Ecotours de México and All Aboard Yacht Services.
We appreciate the support of API Puerto Vallarta, the 8th. Naval Zone, Ecotours de México, Dolphin Adventure and the Technological Institute of Bahía de Banderas.
Our teams in La Paz, Los Cabos, Oaxaca and San Blas have already held their annual practices. meanwhile, our teams from loreto and manzanillo started the season strongly by successfully rescuing, each team, a humpback whale.
TAKING CARE OF THE WHALES
For the 8th consecutive year ecobac, with the support of opequimar centro marino, are organizing ourselves to be able to continue with the whaling’s prevention, information, monitoring and surveillance program in banderas bay, which, as you know, has had very good results. the goal of this program is to promote good navigation practices during the whale season, as well as to spread the official rule nom-131-semarnat-2010 that establishes guidelines for whale watching and to encourage proper following, by avoiding boat agglomerations and whale harassment, as well as dangerous situations for people.
thanks to biomar foundation, this season we will be able to make at least 8 trips, for which we greatly appreciate your valuable support.
THE WHALES NEED YOUR HELP
All of our achievements and projects are in part thanks to your donations. as you can see, there is a lot of work to be done, for this season we need knives, new extensions, gasoline, fixing our rescue dingy, tires and rims for the dingy trailer, among other things. any donation in kind or in cash is very appreciated, visit
https://www.ecobac.org/donations/?lang=en
los mantendremos informados sobre lo más relevante de la temporada de ballenas.We will keep you informed with the most relevant news of the whale season.
We wish you very happy holidays and an excellent 2019 with great health, love, happiness and good habits for taking care of our beloved planet.
Sus amigos de ECOBAC