SANTIAGO, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chilean President Michelle Bachelet signed on Wednesday a law which prohibits the cetacean hunting within its jurisdictional waters.
During a ceremony at the natural sanctuary Roca Oceanica in the region of Valparaiso, Bachelet said with this step Chile leaves "a great legacy to the future generations."
The new law calls the cetacean hunting a crime and the public are prohibited from killing, capturing, transporting, trading, storing or processing cetaceans, alive or dead.
The law protects the key living spaces for these mammals and promotes the creation of the protected coast marine areas, parks or reserved areas.
It also regulates actions in protection, rescue, rehabilitation, observation and monitoring of mammals, reptiles and hydrobiology birds.
This law, which benefits 43 cetacean species in the Chilean waters, is an acquired compromise of Bachelet during the presentation of her public yearly account on May 21.
Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama also have banned the cetacean hunting.
