- EDITORIAL - GREEN TOURISM - TREND - FRENCH POLYNESIA NEWS UPDATE - TAHITI TOURISME NEWS UPDATE - TOURISM PROFESSIONALS WORKING ON BEHALF OF THE ENVIRONMENT - INTERVIEW -
Nicolas CASTEL The Eleuthera Plongée is a 5-star PADI scuba diving club located on Tahiti’s west coast. It offers special dolphin or whale excursions off Tahiti and organizes two ocean dives daily. There are more than 30 available diving sites. Also offered are day diving trips to Tahiti’s sister island of Moorea and the atoll of Tetiaroa, night dives and shipwreck dives. The club’s team provides training and organized first dives and monitors for nitrox, trimix or recycler dives.
Manager of Eleuthera Plongée
French Polynesia adopted a law intended to protect whales inside territorial waters. Has this law changed the way you work when conducting whale-watching excursions?
No. We had some administrative paperwork to fill out to obtain approval for this activity after French Polynesia waters were designated as a whale sanctuary. But we have organized whale-watching excursions for 10 years, and we always respected the instructions that are now written into the law. There are broad logical and natural principles that professionals like ourselves automatically follow. We do not charge into the whales. We do not corner whales between the coral reef and the boat. We do not chase after the baby whales, yelling and screaming. The government’s regulations are more aimed at private individuals, those who have never before seen whales and know nothing about such things as their breathing cycles.
How are your whale-watching excursions conducted?
All our excursions are guaranteed. Those who sign up are guaranteed they will see some whales, even if a second excursion must be organized, which practically never occurs. There is a minimum of three persons for each excursion, which last three hours. All observations of the whales are made from the boat. Of course, we respect the approach distance so that we do not create any stress for the whale and cause it to go further away or to dive. So it is also in our interest to respect the regulations on this point. Observations are much better from a certain distance. And a curious whale will sometimes approach the boat.
You have been offering such excursions for the past 10 years. Have you seen any change in the behavior or the number of whales?
There are always many whales around Tahiti, but they have received more media attention in recent years, which has led to the creation of more businesses offering this activity. So there has been a lot more interest in this subject. We talk about it more and more, but the whales are still there.
How often do you conduct whale-watching excursions?
We organize excursions for three months of the year—from August through October. Those are the months that the whales are the most numerous. During that period we organize two excursions a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, 7/7.
- EDITORIAL - GREEN TOURISM - TREND - FRENCH POLYNESIA NEWS UPDATE - TAHITI TOURISME NEWS UPDATE - TOURISM PROFESSIONALS WORKING ON BEHALF OF THE ENVIRONMENT - INTERVIEW -
