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6. BBWW ACTIVITY AND DEMAND AROUND THE COAST
6.1 Introduction
This section provides a qualitative description of the current variation in the supply of and demand for
boat-based whale watching around the coast, and includes non-permitted as well as permitted
activity. In order to facilitate their description and discussion in the context of relevant coastal
development and characteristics, the 26 boat-based whale watching areas are placed within the
context of the thirteen coastal development regions used by DEAT (1999) (Figure 6.1). The use of
regions will also aid in preserving the confidentiality of respondent information collected during this
study. These regions were proposed by DEAT’s (1999) White Paper on Sustainable Coastal
Development in order to allow more focused assessments and intervention related to each region’s
specific needs and resources. They have resulted from the realisation that South Africa’s coastline is
highly diverse in terms of its ecology, as well as its socio-economic and legislative environment. Only
one of these regions, Namaqualand in the Northern Cape Province, has not been gazetted as a
potential whale watching area and has no permits currently allocated to it. Currently no boat-based
whale watching is known to occur there in any form and this was substantiated in interviews with
stakeholders in the adjacent area.
Figure 6.1. Map showing the 13 coastal development regions proposed by DEAT (1999) for use in the
formulation of sustainable coastal development policy.
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