Whale-watching

doi:10.1017/CBO9781139018166.012

10 - Whale-watching

An effective education programme is no fluke

from Part II - Human dimensions of whale-watching

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2014

Genevieve Johnson and

Edited by

Lars Bejder and

Genevieve Johnson: Affiliation:
Zoos Victoria,Werribee South, Victoria, Australia
Cynde McInnis: Affiliation:
Cape AnnWhaleWatch, Gloucester,MA, USA
James Higham: Affiliation:
University of Otago, New Zealand
Lars Bejder: Affiliation:
Murdoch University, Western Australia
Rob Williams: Affiliation:
University of St Andrews, Scotland

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Summary

Introduction

The ocean is the largest remaining wild place on Earth, and contains populations of cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) in oceanic, coastal and river systems. Despite comprising 71% of the Earth's surface, less than 1% of the world's oceans and adjacent seas has protected status, compared to approximately 12% of the world's land area (Hoyt, 2005). Today, the oceans and their cetacean inhabitants face multiple human threats – pollution, both chemical (Wise Sr et al., 2009) and noise (Hatch et al., 2012), prey depletion (Bearzi et al., 2005), entanglements in fishing gear (Robbins & Mattila, 2004), hunting (Hovelsrud et al., 2008) and ship strikes (Panigada et al., 2006) are among the most pervasive. Now more than ever, people need to be educated about the oceans and encouraged to act on their behalf.

Humans have always had a strong connection to whales. An evolution in human attitudes and behaviour towards cetaceans has taken us from hunting them to hailing them as icons of marine conservation. Attitudes towards whales, their suffering and their death have changed dramatically over time, with a steep turnaround in the 1970s–1980s (Bearzi et al., 2010). Cetaceans are now renowned for the education opportunities they present as ambassadors, communicating the need for us to protect them and their aquatic habitats. There is no question of the allure of cetaceans and the passion they inspire in most of us. There is also little doubt that watching whales and dolphins in their natural environment offers an ideal platform to educate visitors (Orams, 1997) about the many endangered species of cetaceans, the overall health of their habitats and what can be done by individuals to help. Because of this, we believe that whale-watching is one of the best ways to combat a society increasingly alienated and distanced from nature, and an excellent chance to affect conservation-based behaviour change. The issue is not whether we have the right species or the right experience from which to capture the hearts and minds of visitors, it is are we currently planning and offering effective education programmes onboard whale-watch trips that change not only attitudes toward cetaceans and the oceans, but also behaviour?

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Type: Chapter
Information: Whale-watching
Sustainable Tourism and Ecological Management
, pp. 128 - 145

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139018166.012 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2014

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