Whale-Watching Excursions Near Rio de Janeiro Captivate Tourists
Rio de Janeiro: Famous for its sun-drenched beaches and vibrant summer festivals, Rio de Janeiro is now attracting visitors with a new winter spectacle: humpback whales.
The tourism agency of Niteroi, Rio’s sister city across Guanabara Bay, has launched a whale-watching program that enables tourists to observe these majestic mammals closely. Between June and November, approximately 25,000 humpback whales undertake a 2,500-mile migration from Antarctica’s feeding grounds to the warm waters of northeast Brazil to breed, with most congregating in the Abrolhos region off the coast of Bahia and Espirito Santo states.
The whale-watching program is a joint initiative by the municipality of Niteroi and researchers from the conservation group Amigos da Jubarte (Friends of the Humpback Whale), which also conducts scientific research during the tours. “Tourism can be a tool for the protection of species,” said André Bento, president of Niteroi’s tourism agency.
The expeditions set off from the Niteroi Yacht Club, with researchers spotting an average of five whales per cruise, along with various species of dolphins, turtles, and seabirds. Each six-hour trip costs between 550 and 600 Brazilian reais, with guides adhering to federal regulations that require vessels to maintain a minimum distance of 100 meters from the whales and limit observation time to 30 minutes, reduced to 15 minutes if a calf is present.
“This period is sensitive, and these norms are important not just for the animals, but also for us, for our safety,” said Luan Amaral, a 27-year-old researcher on the project. It could include new embarkation sites, in which case the area is developing in whale-watching tourism. This initiative gives tourists propagative exposure to some unique experiences. It emphasizes at the same time that tourism has a potential means of raising awareness on conservation and increasing sensitization on protective measures for these grand creatures and their habitats.
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