On December 12th, 2017 (Saturday), a conference was held at the Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum in Naha City to discuss “Sustaining Whale Watching Businesses in Okinawa”. The purpose of this conference was to share and introduce research findings from whale surveys conducted by the Churashima Foundation to whale watching businesses within the prefecture. This information aids the businesses when running their whale watching tours. This was the 5th time the conference was held. There were 77 attendees from 19 whale watching businesses and 5 other groups who came from northern, central and southern parts of Okinawa and from Zamami, Tokashiki, Ie island and Amami Oshima. The conference invited Kyoichi Mori from Teikyo University of Science to talk and share new ideas of how we can minimize the effects on whales from whale watching and tours. Staff of the Churashima Foundation talked about the ecology of humpback whales and shared the results of surveys conducted previously, along with reports from local businesses spotting whales. Positive feedback was given from attendees such as, “It is thrilling to know about the efforts made in places outside of the main island of Okinawa”, “It was nice to learn new information on the ecology of humpback whales in Okinawa. I’d like to apply this knowledge to my future guiding practices.”
The Churashima Foundation will continue to share our knowledge to assist the tourism industry as well as actively exchanging opinions and gathering information.