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location. Most cetaceans spend the majority of their lives in the open ocean where whale watching is
not viable, however, most species targeted by the industry come close to land during critical stages in
their lives e.g. to feed, breed, calve or nurse their young. It is at these stages in their life cycles that
the animals are most vulnerable and also most subjected to disturbance by whale watchers. There is
concern that repeated, intensive disturbance may impact negatively on foraging and/or hunting,
causing the animals to move away from rich feeding grounds and potential mates (Garrod & Fennell
2004). There have been reports of vessels moving between mother and calf pairs, causing the calves
to become separated from their food supply, stressed and in extreme cases, dying as a result of this
disturbance. The most dramatic form of disturbance caused by whale watchers is when boats
accidentally collide with whales causing physical injury and sometimes death of the whale.
Considering some of the potential impacts of commercial whale watching on cetaceans, governments
and non-governmental organisations around the world are increasingly acknowledging that some
level of whale watching management is required (Garrod & Fennell 2004). What is less evident is the
extent and type of management intervention that should be implemented. Some countries have
imposed “command and control” regulations that have been legally declared and disregarding the law
is considered a criminal offence, while others simply encourage tour operators and tourists to
voluntarily adopt a more responsible approach to whale watching. Many countries have established
semi-formal, voluntary guidelines or codes of conduct for whale watching activities.
Carlson (2001) provides a comprehensive compilation of all the whale watching regulations and
guidelines currently in place around the world and the reader is further referred to this document for
specific details that are not mentioned in this report. Garrod and Fennell (2004) analysed 58 such
codes of conduct from around the world and ultimately report that the voluntary guideline approach to
whale watching is increasingly being accepted as the preferred means of management. Accreditation
schemes (belonging to scientific and/or research linked organisations providing approval of the
operations) are also being promoted for management of whale watching (Berrow 2003). Most
countries or communities involved with whale watching have some regulations, including codes of
conduct which are voluntary, but have some degree of legal enforcement in specific areas e.g. marine
reserves or sensitive areas (Berrow 2003). Development of an internationally recognized voluntary
code of conduct that will be universally accepted by the world’s whale watchers is unlikely due to the
considerable diversity of whale watching operations around the world.
The formal legislative approach to whale watching management has often resulted in a complex array
of regulations where some aspects of different legislations are contradictory or overlap or where major
gaps exist in others. This creates confusion and misunderstandings when attempting to interpret the
different regulations intended for the whale watching industry (Garrod & Fennell 2004). The
legislation has, in many cases, failed to keep up with the rapidly growing and relatively new whale
watching industry, with growth occurring at a rate regulators failed to predict (Garrod & Fennell 2004).
A further problem with legally prescriptive regulations of the industry is that they are often poorly or
incompletely enforced, mostly due to many operators interacting with many highly mobile targets over
a vast area of sea being difficult and expensive to manage.
The informal management of the whale watching industry relies on voluntary implementation of codes
of conduct that are enforced by ethical obligation and peer pressure (Garrod & Fennell 2004).
Voluntary guidelines have the advantage of being relatively easy to introduce in a short space of time
and can be used to regulate the industry while more formal national regulations are being created and
introduced. Formal regulations constructed in this manner are considered to be based on experience
gained and to incorporate local knowledge, resulting in a mix of formal and informal regulations,
allowing authorities to modify aspects to local conditions while still maintaining a common set of basic
principles (Garrod & Fennell 2004).
In general, management of whale watching, in whatever form it occurs, is acknowledged to be
necessary and at the broadest level should aim to minimise the environmental and ecological
impacts, including the impacts on cetaceans, such as to allow long term benefits to both the whale
watching industry and the ecosystem (Greenpeace 2001). The basic principles are:
• Whale watching activity must allow cetaceans to continue whatever behaviour they are engaged in
at the time of contact. Care should be taken to ensure that they are not disturbed or interrupted in
their activities by the approaching vessel. This includes noise disturbance.
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