Marine
mammal tourism has experienced rapid and widespread international
growth over the past three decades with an estimated
13 million tourists in 2008 generating around US$ 2.1 billion in total
revenue. As a sub-component of this wider non-captive marine mammal
tourism industry is dolphin- based tourism (including watching and
swimming-with-dolphins). A wide range of research into
the effects of tourism on marine mammals has identified that such
activities are not benign and recent research has linked its cumulative
and potentially synergetic short-term effects with long-term biological
consequences for the viability and fitness of targeted
populations. Considering it is a human use of a marine mammal resource,
the International Whaling Commission has considered marine mammal
tourism activities and set up a Whale Watching Sub-Committee in 1998. The
workshop
will consist of talks and discussion forum in order to review the
scientific basis for management of marine mammal tourism, discuss
actions for management agencies and examine their efficiency, and
consider future management development and implementation frameworks.
Any parties interested in contributing to the workshop via a 30min presentation should contact Anna Meissner on a.m.meissner@massey.ac.nz
with a proposed title in the first instance.
On behalf of the organizing committee members
Anna Meissner (Massey University), Karen Stockin (Massey University), Emmanuelle Martinez (Pacific Whale Foundation)
& Mark Orams (AUT University)