Whale Watching and Ecotourism: A Field Study in Northern Norway - Manuscript

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1 “Whale-watching and Ecotourism” – a field study in northern Norway Heike I. Vester Ocean Sounds info@ocean-sounds.com Abstract (300 words)

Introduction/Background Whales are often used as icons by whale watching companies self awarding them an “eco” label, which do not meet the requirements of ecotourism. As an example “ecotourism activities should have minimal emissions, noise or waste, and they should monitor their impacts and should promote the conservation ethic” (Hoyt 2005). This is in many cases not fulfilled by the whale watching industry, leading some places to poor quality, unmanaged, and most probably detrimental to the ecosystem. In fact, there is little proof that whale watching can be considered sustainable, “nonconsumptive” activity with low impact on nature. I will present examples from worldwide whale watching operations and compare it to my own ongoing research project in of whale watching impacts in northern Norway. The first commercial whale watching started in 1955 in the US, viewing grey whales off the coast of San Diego. Now, whale-watching is a world wide (over 90 countries) growing form of wildlife tourism with viewing at most of the 85 (including endangered and threatened) species. Between 1991 and 1998, whale watching activity increased by 12.1 % worldwide, involving more than US$ 1 billion and 9 million people / year and this trend is increasing (Hoyt, 2001). It has been discussed that whale watching can promote cetacean conservation, commercial vessels can be used as a platform for research and it may provide a viable economic alternative to whaling. As for today whale watching generates more than US$ 1 billion a year world wide, whereas the killing of whales only produces around US$ 50 a year. One of the most important organizations to promote responsible whale watching is the International Fund for Animal Welfare (www.ifaw.org). An important aspect of sustainable tourism is environmental education. In 1997 the IWC proposed that “all whale watching should contain an educational component adhering to a high standard of quality”. In a perfect world whale watching would be beneficial to the local economy, to environmental conservation, would have an educational value, be satisfactory to tourists and, have least impact on the whales. On the other hand, recent concerns that whale watching activities have negative impact has questions those opinions. Impact of whale watching is still poorly understood but can range from disturbance and displacement of the whales to injury and death (review of Parsons, et al., 2006; Johnson, 2005). Research on impacts lags behind the explosive development of whale watching and is typically conducted after the industry has already been established in an area (Orams, 2004). However, existing research results show that there are short- and long-term effects on the whales (Parsons, et al., 2006). Short term effects are measured in immediate responses, such as changes in behavior or vocalizations, and horizontal or vertical avoidance. Longterm effects range from long term displacement, shift in habitat usage or the decline of the population (Bejder et al., 2006; Lusseau etal., 2006 ), however effects on the


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