Amazing species- Day 2

Whales

Whales are marine mammals belonging to the order Cetacea, which currently includes the suborders Mysticeti (baleen whales) and Odontoceti (toothed whales). For centuries whales were heavily persecuted and captured for their meat, blubber, and bones, which led to a reduction in their numbers, even culminating in the extinction of several species.

With the ban on commercial whaling under the International Whaling Commission’s Moratorium in 1986, most of the nations involved in this industry were forced to readjust their practices and change their perspective from seeing whales as consumable resources to exclusively promoting its conservation and profiting from it therefore contributing to give rise to the whale watching industry. Whale watching is a human activity included in ecotourism and defined as “encountering cetaceans (dolphins, porpoises and whales) in their natural habitat” for “scientific, educational, and/or recreational purposes” from boats, aircraft or specific points on land. The first records of this activity date back to the 1940s, when Carl Hubbs, a whale researcher, began a land-based gray whales watching along with his students from the University of California as part of an academic and governmental project.

Only in 1955 the commercial side of whale watching started when a fisherman from San Diego, California charged 1$ trip boats from winter to spring seasons to observe gray whales during their migration routes between the lagoons of Baja California, Mexico, and Alaska. Since then whale watching has been growing globally even being considered nowadays the most renowned ecotourism activity worldwide.

Whale watching plays a crucial role in the local economies where it takes place. In addition it can be educationally beneficial: firstly, because it allows scientists to obtain information about socio-ecological aspects of cetaceans, which is useful in decision-making for coastal management and reducing impacts caused on them and their habitat; secondly, by allowing closer contact with cetaceans and providing information related with their biology, tourists are sensitized to the need of protecting wildlife, thus a conservation ethic is promoted in the individuals.

Despite all the benefits associated with the practice of this activity, several studies have been conducted on the negative effects it may have if not sustainably managed, both in the short- and long-term. Some sources of perturbation generated by this activity in cetaceans include noise pollution created by vessel traffic, over occupation of an observation area with boats, excessive proximity of the boat to the animal, high-speed approaching the animals, lack of whale watching regulation normative or lack of monitoring compliance with the implemented legislation. Short-term behavioural responses include swimming speed significantly increasing, changes in the direction of travel, increasing diving time and breaching frequency. These changes can be responsible for increasing energy expenditures which in long-term may affect body condition, reproduction success, and survival rates of the animals, therefore disturbing the population dynamics and eventually becoming a threat to the conservation of the species.

Mexico is among the 10 most popular whale watching destinations globally. As in other countries where whale watching is practised, Mexico implemented a normativity, called/named Official Mexican Standard 131, which contemplates guidelines to the practise of whale watching in order to minimize its potential impacts. Despite this normativity, the main problem seems to be whether it is being applied in the field, especially in regions not designated as Marine Protected Areas (MPA), where there is lower surveillance and monitoring of these activities.

Therefore, for my master degree I analysed whether the normative was being followed by whale watching vessels and if it was having short-term impacts on the behaviour of gray whales, one of the main species the whale watching industry in Mexico is focused on. The study took place at Bahía Magdalena Lagoon Complex, an area not designated as MPA and a winter breeding and calving area for individuals from the two extant populations of this species, the Eastern North Pacific population and the critically endangered Western North Pacific population. To do so, surveys were conducted during the 2022 whale watching season, from January to march, the predominant behaviour displayed by whales in the absence of whale watching vessel and their reaction to whale watching vessels presence were recorded and we evaluated if the whale watching guidelines were being followed by whale watching vessels (example: number of vessels <4, vessel speed <4km/h, observation time <30 min).

Bárbara Diogo

References

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