Effects of tourism on marine mammals in New Zealand

Constantine, R.

Department of Conservation

1999

Department of Conservation

www.doc.govt.nz

There has been a rapid growth in marine mammal based tourism around the world, because marine mammals have a wide appeal for many people and are readily found around many coastal areas and are therefore readily accessible.

Marine mammal based tourism in New Zealand is a wide-ranging, species-diverse industry with an increasing demand for permits from land, boat and air-based platforms. A total of 74 permits at 26 sites have been issued from Maunganui to Stewart Island. The region with the most concentrated effort is Kaikoura.

Past and current research projects in New Zealand evaluating the effects of tourism on marine mammals are reviewed. The only current ones deal with the New Zealand sea lions of the Catlins, and Northland’s bottlenose dolphin population.

In New Zealand, toothed cetaceans and pinnipeds form the basis of the marine mammal based tourism industry. We are one of few countries which permit swimming with dolphins and seals.

Boat and aircraft noise has been shown to affect some species of marine mammals. There is an inadequate database on the acoustic impacts of both recreational and commercial vessels on dolphins and sperm and Bryde’s whales.

As the ability of cetaceans to communicate and forage is frequently dependent on their acoustic perceptions, this area of research should not be underestimated. Research overseas has focused on baleen cetaceans but research on sperm whales in Kaikoura conducted in the early 1990s provided valuable management information.

One of the most important aspects of evaluating the effects of tourism on marine mammals is the presence of pre-disturbance baseline data on the population size, habitat use, home range and behavioural ecology of the target species.

Fortunately these data exist for some species (for example the Hector’s dolphins near Banks Peninsula), but for many others (for example bottlenose dolphins in the Bay of Islands) similar data were not collected prior to tourism being established.

As management of this industry is still in its infancy, both in New Zealand and overseas, many areas are finding difficulty with enforcement of the regulations and guidelines. New Zealand’s Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978 and Marine Mammals Protection Regulations 1992 fully protect marine mammals. The issuing of permits has caused some debate about rights under the Treaty of Waitangi.

The majority of Department of Conservation Conservancies expressed some concern over the number of permits being issued and the lack of knowledge about their impacts. There is very little information on the effectiveness of the educational material provided by commercial operators. Research on the most efficient and effective management system could resolve some of the issues currently facing the industry.

It is important to assess the costs and benefits of this kind of tourism. Issuing permits for marine mammal based tourism makes the operators a stakeholder in the animals’ welfare and may act as a conservation measure in the long run, but only if it does not cause any harassment to the animals. Examples where this is of some urgency due to the threatened status of the species are the New Zealand sea lion and the Hector’s dolphins.

The 1990 Marine Mammals Protection Regulations were originally designed to provide the Director-General of Conservation with guidelines for whalewatching, and they were then revised in 1992 to cope with the increase in dolphin-watching. Given the recent findings of species-specific research on responses to marine mammal based tourism and the rapid growth of this industry, the need to consider further revisions to the regulations has been identified and is being actioned.

Keywords:

Marine, Tourism, Conservation, Whalewatching, Wildlife, Natural resources

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July 16, 2012