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East Nusa Tenggara to lure tourists with whales
There are actually 18 different species of whales that swim through the seas around East Nusa Tenggara and two of the them are classified as endangered.
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WWF Indonesia monitoring and surveillance officer Evi Nurul Ihsan observes a whale shark near the Kwatisore fishing platform zone, Nabire, within Cenderawasih Bay National Park, Papua. (JP/Arya Dipa)
People tend to associate East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province with Labuan Bajo or Komodo National Park.
What most of them don’t know is that there are actually 18 different species of whales that swim through the seas around NTT and two of the them are classified as endangered: the blue whale and the sperm whale.
The Tourism Ministry, alongside Nature Conservancy Indonesia, is currently developing whale-watching as a tourist attraction that is to be launched in 2018. The locations to watch the whales would be in Lembata, East Flores, Alor and several more regencies on Flores Island.
Read also: Whale sharks draw tourists to Nabire
NTT Tourism Agency head Marius Ardu Jelamu said his team is currently distributing a draft of the development and business plan for whale- and dolphin-watching programs to stakeholders in NTT.
Jelamu emphasizes that whales are endangered animals so the whale-watching tourism initiative needs to be done in a very strict manner.
“Without a clear guideline that all stakeholders, locals and tourists comply with, the activity will threaten the sustainability of the whales,” Marius said. (kes)
