Chile bans whale hunting along its entire coast

Chile is making its Pacific Ocean territorial waters a whale sanctuary, the Associated Press reports:

The Senate on Thursday unanimously passed a bill submitted by President Michelle Bachelet that bans whale hunting off Chile's 3,400-mile coast.

Bachelet is expected to sign the legislation into law in the coming days.

The bill bans hunting for commercial and scientific purposes.

Chile has not hunted whales since the 1970s.

But Bachelet says the South American nation wants to send a clear sign of its will to protect whales in its waters.

Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama already ban whale hunting. A whale sanctuary also exists in Antarctica.

Earlier this year, The Times' reported that whales off Chile's coast are making a comeback.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Liliana Nieto del Rio