Is eco tourism saving the whales?
image: stock.xchng
By Valerie Lewis
President of the Sunshine Coast Environment Council
All over the globe, people gather in their hundreds on boats, or are taken swimming with the sole purpose of watching one of their favourite cetaceans, whales. This activity has expanded to such an extent that it is now considered to be a major eco-tourism endeavour in all countries whose oceans and waterways are visited by whales in their annual migrations.
As a typical example, the whale watching centre in the state of Oregan counted around 6000 visitors in the month of December 2008. In Iceland, whale watching has developed from a few hundred tourists in the 1990’s to over 80,000 today. It is hard to estimate the global number,but it is likely to be in the tens of millions.
A survey in 2001 (Holt, IFAW 2001) revealed that “whale watching is now carried on in some 492 communities around the world -- nearly 200 more than in 1994. In many places, whale watching provides valuable, sometimes crucial income to a community, with the creation of new jobs and businesses. It helps foster an appreciation of the importance of marine conservation, and provides a ready platform for researchers wanting to study cetaceans or the marine environment. Whale watching offers communities a sense of identity and considerable pride. In a number of places, it does all of the above, literally transforming a community.”
This has certainly been true for communities such as Hervey Bay where tourists flock annually to enjoy watching the whales who stop by our neighbourhood for some mating and R&R activity.
In the 2001 IFAW report, it was noted for example that in the USA:
”The direct expenditures (the amount whale watchers spent on the tours) increased from $US77 million in 1991 to $US299.5 million in 1998 -- an average annual increase of 21.4 per cent.
“The total expenditures (the amount whale watchers spent on the tours, as well as travel, food, hotels and souvenirs) increased from $US317.9 million in 1991 to $US1,049 million in 1998 -- an average annual increase of 18.6 per cent.”
The annual income from whale watching around the world is now so huge that Greenpeace, in their efforts to combat whale hunting, has made the point that whales are worth more alive than dead, a nod to the enormity of the whale watching industry.
It is certainly true that the general public has become increasingly educated about our oceans and its creatures, thanks in part to having naturalists on board tourist boats, and it is hoped that this will go far to assist with preservation of whales and dolphins. It is certainly in the best interests of eco-tourism that this is the case.
But, it seems that our beloved whales are destined to be hunted, whether it be with harpoon, or camera, or whale watching boat. The fact is that the only choice it seems is between being killed or being watched as human kind seems obsessed to do one or the other. With this in mind it might be appropriate to ask a few questions about the ethics of whale watching. Do we just have the right to enter their territory, even with such good intentions?
There is a tendency, when it comes to our mammalian animal friends, for human beings to ascribe human-like motivations and feelings when observing them. We are known to dress up dogs and cats in little human outfits, and in general, we try to turn them into seeming as much like us as we can.
This is not to say that we do not share motivations and feelings, but it is not possible to know the extent to which a behaviour that an animal exhibits mimics what we would feel as humans. So when we watch whales, and their swimming activity increases and they swim up to us, we tend to read this as their showing off for us and that they want to make contact with us, etc. But we are not to know if a given whale with a calf nearby is agitated and upset by the presence of any number of boats laden with creatures that wave and make noise. There is quite a bit of whale behaviour data to indicate that the latter is actually fairly likely.
In 2002, William Rossiter talking about the burgeoning ‘swimming with..’ industry, writes in a publication of the Cetacean Society International:
“Do they mind all this? Are we doing harm? No-one really knows. How can we? Our senses and skills are dulled in the water, overwhelmed by the experience, and manipulated by self interest. Whales and dolphins also have proven very hard to provoke, at least enough to penetrate the mindset of enthralled or self-convinced people.
“Put another way, only a few people have been killed. But, along with broken bones and chewed noses, many have come close, albeit by accident. Have you noticed the threatening tail swipes at photographers in many underwater whale documentaries? The initial upset we may cause may be tolerated, or may be reacted to so subtly that we do not get the cues. Subtle behaviours that would scare away a shark, are ignored. The drive to get the picture blocks the view of the irritated body language, which we probably would not accept even if we understood it.
“Even if we know intuitively that something is wrong, we came a long way and paid a lot for this moment... How many cetaceans are left to wonder if we are sentient at all?”
As a result of concerns regarding whale watching activities, some enlightened regulations have been put in place in most Western countries such as Australia, NZ, Canada and the US. There are limits to numbers of boats licensed, to speed, angle of approach and so forth. In 1997, fairly strict laws in Queensland came into effect, but the limits of the state are three nautical miles. It is therefore difficult for the state patrol boats to enforce boat behaviour outside of that limit, as it is Federal jurisdiction.
The general objective is to not endanger whales but there is in actuality little in way of information to assess the impact that such an intense and growing industry as whale watching may be having. Scientific data is continually collected however, and we can only hope that if it should be shown that whale sightings drop significantly in a particular area such as Byron or Harvey Bay, that steps will be taken to re-think the activity.
We may have to consider building viewing platforms at sea, rather than have a relatively large number of individual, noisy vessels invading whale territory, or we have to make do with just watching them with binoculars from shore.
With this in mind, resorts are springing up along coastal areas frequented by whales, where one can enjoy the delights of viewing whale frolicking without going close to them. In the meantime, lets just ask ourselves to keep an open mind and keep a watchful eye on our tourism industries so that we don’t love these creatures to the point of harassment.
Up to now, our eco-tourism operators appear to be doing the right thing, and let’s hope that the whales continue to delight us with their presence. And after all it is true, as Greenpeace noted, that the worldwide whale-watching industry may just keep whales safe from harpoons.
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