Marine protected areas for whales, dolphins, and porpoises: a world ...

Habitat Protection for Cetaceans around the World 187
and species identification. The National Parks and Wildlife Service is
attempting to control the total time allowed watching dolphins. Operators
complying with all requirements will be accredited under a special scheme
and allowed to fly a dolphin flag from their vessels. These operators will be
officially sanctioned.
SACs are still a young ‘work in progress’ and they hold great potential to
improve dolphin habitat conservation. Still, certain other matters may need
to be addressed if the proposed SACs in Ireland, the UK and around Europe
are going to be effective for long-term marine habitat and cetacean
conservation. First is the matter of size: are they large enough to protect
cetaceans? The second, closely related, issue is zoning. One principle,
advanced in this book, is that all MPAs will benefit from the identification
and protection of IUCN Category I core habitat and by having generous
transition and border areas, such as are found in the best biosphere reserves.
To date, in the EU countries where SACs are being proposed, most appear
to be IUCN Category VI areas with MPA management being imposed on
areas which function as shipping corridors or even harbours, with already
established urban, industrial or other uses. With such a mix of users all being
catered for to some degree, marine habitat conservation becomes more
difficult than, for example, in the southern hemisphere, the Americas or in
parts of the Pacific where zoning of MPAs can be accomplished free from
or less influenced by prior ownership or control, or by entrenched
commercial pressures. Finally, as argued elsewhere in this book, the full
application of ecosystem-based management principles is the best way to
ensure that an ecosystem stays healthy long into the future.
The UK and Irish SACs are showing some early evidence of initiatives
from researchers and other stakeholders, as well as management agencies, to
consider all aspects for the management of the ecosystem. The Shannon
River in Ireland has become the first region in Ireland to implement the
Water Framework Directive, through River Basin Management Plans, to
maintain water quality. Land-based sources of pollution around the Shannon
River are being identified and brought under local management. The success
of these efforts will be just as important as the more immediate and obvious
impacts from modification and management of shipping and fishing, as well
as dolphin watching and other marine-based tourism. But for an ecosystembased
management approach to work, it needs a comprehensive, coordinated
approach and an appropriate legal framework, including the force of law and
the necessary economic backing, to control and manage competing human
uses so that the ecosystem can support dolphins and other species.