Festival de Ballena y Delfines Costa Rica – Facebook
The Ballena National Marine Park is preparing for the Whales and Dolphins Festival that will start on September 15th and will extend until October 1st.
The ninth edition of the festival is in the middle of good news for the locals: soon they will have a tourist berth for people that visit this site to provide more favorable conditions for the sighting of whales and dolphins.
Mauricio Ventura, Minister of Tourism, stressed that this park is becoming a pioneer site for the development of nautical tourism, which is why building a berth is urgent to facilitate mobility and whale and dolphin watching, which triggers the local economy in an season traditionally low for the tourism sector.
Historically, tourism in Costa Rica has turned its back on the sea and it is time to promote adequate infrastructure for the development of nautical tourism in the Ballena National Marine Park, a natural sanctuary that at this time of the year becomes the home of many whales, which choose the waters of our country to reproduce,”
said Ventura.
The sighting of whales and dolphins was declared of national interest and has gradually become a pillar of the development of this area. Each year, more tourists move to see the mammals. In 2016, the canton of Osa received an approximate of 5,000 people during the two weeks of the Festival.
The National Marine Park is recognized nationally and internationally for the annual visits of different species of cetaceans, such as the humpback whale, pilot whale, bryde whale and false killer whales, plus three resident species of dolphins including bottlenose dolphins, spotted dolphins and spinner dolphins, as well as several species of sea turtles such as hawksbill turtle, green turtle and the Atlantic ridley sea turtle.