G'day folks, We are pleased to announce the publication of the following paper in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism: Managing whale-watching as a non-lethal consumptive activity. Abstract: Marine tourism is a new frontier of late-capitalist transformation, generating more global revenue than aquaculture and fisheries combined. This transformation created whale-watching, a commercial tourism form that, despite recent critiques, has been accepted as non-consumptive activity. This paper uses four academic discourses to critique whale-watching as a form of capitalist exploitation: (1) commercial whale-watching and global capitalist transformation, (2) global capitalist politics and the promoted belief that whale-watching is non-consumptive, (3) the inherent contradictions of non-consumptive capitalist exploitation, and (4) whale-watching as a common-pool resource. These discourses lead us to critique whale-watching practices in relation to the common capitalist sequence of resource diversification, exploitation, depletion and collapse. Using specific impact studies, we conclude that a sustainability paradigm shift is required, whereby whale-watching (and other forms of wildlife tourism) is recognized as a form of non-lethal consumptive exploitation, understood in terms of sub-lethal anthropogenic stress and energetic impacts. We argue the need for a paradigm shift in the regulation and management of commercial whale-watching, and present the case for a unified, international framework for managing the negative externalities of whale-watching. The relevance of the issues raised about neoliberal policy-making extends beyond whale-watching to all forms of wildlife and nature-based tourism. The full citation is as follows: James E.S. Higham, Lars Bejder, Simon J. Allen, Peter J. Corkeron & David Lusseau (2015). Managing whale-watching as a non-lethal consumptive activity. Journal of Sustainable Tourism DOI: 10.1080/09669582.2015.1062020 You can access the paper at http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/3kKaKmus6dBgUj28dfG4/full or request a PDF from any of the authors. Best regards, James, Lars, Simon, Peter and David ------------------- Simon Allen, PhD Murdoch University Cetacean Research Unit School of Veterinary and Life Sciences Murdoch University 90 South St, Murdoch Western Australia 6150 mob: (61-0) 416 083 653 email: s.allen@murdoch.edu.au<applewebdata://E433A580-3267-45A5-B14A-5BCC8E8DA00A/s.allen@murdoch.edu.au> web1: http://www.sharkbaydolphins.org web2: http://mucru.org<http://mucru.org/> Latest papers: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/3kKaKmus6dBgUj28dfG4/full http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0101427 http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/MF13130.htm "The opposite of courage is not cowardice; it is conformity. Even dead fish can go with the flow." (Jim Hightower)