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16 - Ecological constraints and the propensity for population consequences of whale-watching disturbances

from Part III - Ecological dimensions of whale-watching

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2014

By
David Lusseau
Edited by
James Higham ,
Lars Bejder  and
Rob Williams
David Lusseau
Affiliation:
University of Aberdeen
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

Interactions between boats and cetaceans influence the behaviour of animals. Cetaceans will tend to evade boat interactions and these evasion tactics will lead to altered activity budgets (Williams et al., 2002, 2006; Nowacek et al., 2001, Lusseau, 2003, 2004). In some instances, those influences can have severe impacts for individuals and their populations (Lusseau, 2004, 2005a; Williams et al., 2006; Lusseau et al., 2006; Bejder et al., 2006). However, we currently have no way to determine a priori when boat-interaction effects will lead to biological impacts and when those will have population consequences. This lack of predictive power means that we lack the scientific foundations to manage the current rapid growth of the whale-watching industry and therefore the industry's sustainability is being questioned (Corkeron, 2004; Higham & Lusseau, 2007). In this chapter, I develop a conceptual understanding of how the natural constraints that populations face can be critical factors increasing the propensity for population consequences of whale-watching disturbances. This conceptualization is leading to the development of a number of predictions that I encourage the scientific community to test. Each of these hypotheses is highlighted in their relevant section and I also bring them together in the conclusion.

Type
Chapter
Information
Whale-watching
Sustainable Tourism and Ecological Management
 , pp. 229 - 241
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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