Being Whale Wise: The Effectiveness of Whale Watching Guidelines in Johnstone Strait, British Columbia
Abstract
Johnstone Strait, British Columbia, Canada is home to several groups of northern resident
killer whales (Orcinus orca), which also makes it a prime tourist destination for
whale watching. Boat traffic through the strait averages at least 13 vessels an hour,
consisting of both private and commercial vessels. Currently, a set of voluntary marine
mammal viewing guidelines is in place to help regulate the behavior of these vessels
near the whales, however it is unclear how effective these guidelines actually are
in promoting responsible wildlife viewing in Johnstone Strait. This study was undertaken
to determine the effectiveness of this voluntary code, and was conducted using both
land-based and boat-based observations. For twelve days during July and August 2009,
observations were conducted from a cliff-top vantage point tracking vessel traffic,
whale presence and activity, vessel interactions with whales, and incidents in which
the guidelines were not adhered to. Additionally, data from Straitwatch, a marine
monitoring and stewardship program in Johnstone Strait, were used to supplement the
land-based observations. Straitwatch collected similar data from their outreach vessels,
during July, August and September from 2007 to 2009. From this data, it was found
that the number of incidents between vessels and whales did not show any sign of decrease,
and adherence to the voluntary guidelines is still relatively low. This study serves
to examine the effectiveness of the voluntary program, and recommendations are made
on how to increase education and awareness of these guidelines.
Type
Master's projectPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/2144Citation
Walker, Robyn (2010). Being Whale Wise: The Effectiveness of Whale Watching Guidelines in Johnstone Strait,
British Columbia. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/2144.Collections
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