By Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO - The southern coast of Brazil, an area where right whales were hunted for 300 years, has become a source of life and a safe place for these marine mammals - and an important site for research and eco-tourism.

Brazil's President Fernando Henrique Cardoso signed a decree Sep 14 designating approximately 130 km of the Atlantic coast in Santa Catarina state as an Environmental Protection Area (APA). The reserve covers some 156,000 hectares of coast and sea territory to protect whales and promote sustainable development.

The southern right whale ('eubalaena australis') can reach 18 meters in length and weigh 40 tons. From June to November they migrate to the numerous inlets south of Florianópolis, capital of Santa Catarina, to rear their young.

The whales have been hunted in order to extract oils used in industry and construction, a practice that reduced the world population to its current 7,000. This whale species is at risk of extinction, but the threat is even greater for its sister, the northern right whale, of which there are just 350 left.

Protected areas, such as those existing in Argentina, Australia and New Zealand, are creating hope for the recovery of the southern right whale as a species.

Cardoso's decree rewarded the efforts of a group of volunteers, who for 18 years have monitored and studied the right whales off the southern Brazilian coast and have promoted environmental education for the local population, especially among the fishing community.

''We hope now that the government plays an active role in whale protection,'' regulating fishing and tourism and combating pollution, José Truda Palazzo Junior, coordinator of the Right Whale Project, organized by the Brazilian branch of the International Wildlife Coalition.

The increased presence of the right whale could promote local development, Truda told Tierramérica. Whale-watching tourism brings in a billion dollars annually among 87 countries, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Just 100 of these whales reach Santa Catarina, compared to the 1,500 migrating to the coasts of Argentina's southern province of Chubut. But the number of these enormous mammals arriving in what is now the Brazilian sanctuary grows by seven or eight percent each year, Paulo Flores, the Right Whale Project's scientific director, told Tierramérica.

The Brazilian volunteers every week observe the behavior and composition of the groups of whales in the area, classifying them by age and sex.

The whales approach to within 20 meters of the beach, a fact that historically has made them easy prey, but which now favors eco-tourism and research.

* The author is an IPS correspondent.