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The most important enabling criterion for boat-based whale watching is sea conditions. Sea and launching conditions determine the number of seagoing days, boat size, and thus overall capacity of an operation. Apart from areas north of Durban where sea conditions are relatively calm, whale watching is mostly reliant on sheltered bays. Outside of these bays, rough seas make operations risky and it is difficult to reliably predict suitable conditions. Operators need to be able to guarantee a reasonable probability of going to sea on a particular day. This is supported by the fact that the areas with the worst sea conditions have not had any permit applications. Table 7.2. Estimated rating of different areas in terms of boat-based whale watching business potential, in absence of marketing. Area Sea conditions 1 Whale activity 2 Other marine attractions Existing demand Weight ed mean Rating 3 Weights 0.6 0.2 0.1 0.1 1 Lambert's Bay Area 2 3.1 3.5 1 2.3 poor 2 St Helena Bay Area 3 4.3 3.2 1 3.1 fair 3 Saldanha Bay Area 3 3.7 4 2 3.1 fair 4 Cape Town Area 4 3.4 3.8 4 3.9 good 5 Simonstown Area 5 3.6 3.4 3 4.4 good 6 Gordon's Bay Area 4 3.6 3 2 3.6 good 7 Overbergstrand Sub area 1 3 4.2 2.8 5 3.4 fair 8 Overbergstrand Sub area 2 3 4.2 3.2 4 3.4 fair 9 Overbergstrand Roving A3 3 4.2 3 5 3.4 fair 10 Kleinbaai Area 3 4.2 3.4 4 3.4 fair 11 Struisbaai/ Arniston Area 3 4.3 2.5 2 3.1 fair 12 Mossel Bay Area 3 3.7 2.5 4 3.2 fair 13 Knysna Area 2 3.4 3.5 3 2.5 fair 14 Plettenberg Bay Area 5 4.75 4.5 5 4.9 excellent 15 Port Elizabeth Area 3 4.45 4.5 3 3.4 fair 16 Woody Cape Area 2 3.45 3.1 2 2.4 poor 17 East London Area 1 3.45 2.9 2 1.8 poor 18 South Transkei Area 1 3 3.7 1 1.7 poor 19 Port St Johns Area 1 3 4.1 2 1.8 poor 20 South Sand Bluff to Margate 2 3 3.6 3 2.5 poor 21 Margate to Scottsburgh 3 3 3.8 3 3.1 fair 22 Durban Area 4 3 3.4 3 3.6 good 23 Thukela R. to Richards Bay 4 2.9 2.7 2 3.5 fair 24 St Lucia to Cape Vidal 5 2.8 3.3 5 4.4 good 25 Sodwana Bay Area 5 2.8 3.3 4 4.3 good 1 Includes launching conditions - mooring and port facilities assumed to improve viability 2 Surface activity was a weighted mean of the scores for probable encounter rates of the three main species (0.6*SRW+0.3*HBW+-0.1*BW, from Table 1 in Appendix 5). 3 Based on:
The availability of a ready market is considered to be an important influence, as it can help to kick start the business before the effects of marketing are felt. Current demand was scored on the basis of understanding gleaned from operators and tourism agencies. This is briefly described below. Using these weightings, we rated the boat-based whale watching business potential as being good to excellent in 6 out of 25 areas, and fair in 13 areas (Table 7.2, Figure 7.4). Six areas, one on the West Coast and the rest in the Eastern Cape, were rated as poor but none were very poor. This rating does not consider the potential influence of marketing activity. It should be noted that at least one area that is rated as fair supports a lucrative business. The characteristics and future potential of each of the areas is discussed below. Note that future potential is contingent on improved management (see management recommendations). Potential for BBWW Closed areas Poor Fair Good Excellent 25 24 23 22 1 2 3 4 18 19 20 21 5 6 7 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Figure 7.4. Potential for boat-based whale watching based on data in Table 8.2 The West Coast is considered to have significant potential for boat-based whale watching tourism as this currently forms an important part of the existing attractions in the area. The area has already been successfully marketed for flower viewing in spring, and whale watching could be better marketed as part of broader West Coast eco-tours. The demand for marine tours is centred in Langebaan and Saldanha Bay. Further south, tourism is limited to school holidays and long weekends and is typically domestic in origin. Area 1 is considered marginal, but areas 2 and 3 are described as being able to support boat-based whale watching, with demand being highest in areas closest to the Cape Metro area. In all areas, it was felt that any operator would require subsidiary income or attractions to support themselves through the remainder of the year outside of whale season and long weekends and school holiday periods. Difficult and unpredictable weather conditions are viewed as an important factor limiting success due to the relatively short stays by visitors which rarely allowed for back-up trips to be organised in the face of cancellations due to weather. 64
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BOAT-BASED WHALE WATCHING IN SOUTH
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owners, who felt that a smaller, fa
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION..
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1. INTRODUCTION The whale watching
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the main whale watching season. All
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3. WHALE WATCHING: AN INTERNATIONAL
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location. Most cetaceans spend the
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3.2 South Africa in perspective Boa
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Table 3.3 excludes countries where
Page 22 and 23: west coast up to February or March
Page 24 and 25: The designated areas also include a
Page 26 and 27: 5. PERMIT-HOLDER CHARACTERISTICS, S
Page 28 and 29: The majority of permitted operators
Page 30 and 31: Two very large boats excluded, a ty
Page 32 and 33: November. This is probably due to a
Page 34 and 35: holder, with a total of just over 3
Page 36 and 37: Based on rack rates and the estimat
Page 38 and 39: 5.12 What determines success Based
Page 40 and 41: impact along the Garden Route, anot
Page 42 and 43: 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20
Page 44 and 45: 6.2 Western Cape The Western Cape P
Page 46 and 47: Equipment and infrastructure The fu
Page 48 and 49: around 30 to 35 passengers were per
Page 50 and 51: advertising material which offered
Page 52 and 53: generally variable in their length,
Page 54 and 55: Non-permitted activity One dedicate
Page 56 and 57: Equipment, trip characteristics and
Page 58 and 59: 6.4 KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal cur
Page 60 and 61: visitors can be accommodated before
Page 62 and 63: Run on its way past Durban. Trips w
Page 64 and 65: Operators in Area 25 also offered d
Page 66 and 67: 6.5 Summary of legal and illegal ac
Page 68 and 69: 7. FUTURE POTENTIAL OF THE INDUSTRY
Page 70 and 71: Overall demand is heavily influence
Page 74 and 75: The Cape Metro area is a major tour
Page 76 and 77: focused on harbour trips and until
Page 78 and 79: Wetland Park, Pondoland, the Greate
Page 80 and 81: 8.3 The permit system, conditions a
Page 82 and 83: Monitoring will also be vital for e
Page 84 and 85: 15. Data collected by operators and
Page 86 and 87: Woods-Ballard, A.J., Parsons, E.C.M
Page 88 and 89: 11. APPENDIX 2. SUMMARY OF COMMERCI
Page 90 and 91: used for whale watching must be acc
Page 92 and 93: Both the National and state governm
Page 94 and 95: effort to be controlled through res
Page 96 and 97: not is broached several times each
Page 98 and 99: 11.5 South America 11.5.1 Ecuador T
Page 100 and 101: The Dominican Republic has strict c
Page 102 and 103: 12. APPENDIX 3: NOTIFICATION OF PER
Page 104 and 105: 4. Applicants must be willing to si
Page 106 and 107: SIMONSTOWN AREA Cape Point Lighthou
Page 108 and 109: PLETTENBERG BAY AREA The Western Bo
Page 110 and 111: (iii) the extent to which the appli
Page 112 and 113: Table I. Rating of the whale resour
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