Whale Watching Worldwide

South Australia
Year Number of
whale
watchers
AAGR Number of
operators
Direct
expenditure
Indirect
expenditure
Total
expenditure
1998 106,000 N/A 12 $1,468,000 $1,416,000 $2,884,000
2003 159,900 8.6% 9 $1,293,858 $5,364,677 $6,658,534
2008 194,026 6.2% 36 7 $1,015,109 $13,528,760 $14,543,868
Whale Watch Locations:
01: Yalata
02: Ceduna
03: Fleurieu Peninsular
04: Adelaide
South Australia offers a variety of whale watching activities, ranging
from land‐based viewing, through to boat‐based and even swim‐
with tours. Land‐based numbers account for a significant
proportion of all tourists, with an estimated 184,000 land‐based
tourists in 2008. Since 1998, whale watching in South Australia has
grown at an average annual rate of 6.2%, with swim‐with tours
starting up in this time. Boat‐based watching of large cetaceans has
not increased significantly since 1998 and dolphins remain the main focus of boat‐based activities, with
larger cetaceans mostly watched from land.
At the western edge of the Eyre Peninsula, the Head of Bight viewing platform continues to be a major land‐
based whale watching location, attracting approximately 30,000 land‐based whale watchers in 2008. The
waters of the Great Australian Bight Marine Park are one of the most important calving grounds in Australia
for southern right whales and between 60 – 100 whales can be seen daily between June and November. The
Head of Bight viewing platform is located in the Yalata Aboriginal Protected Area and there are plans to
involve local communities in the whale watching activities more actively by acting as tour guides and
incorporating some Aboriginal history and whale folklore into tours. A market stall is also run once a month
with the community women’s group selling various products direct to tourists. Further plans to develop an
out of season ‘virtual whale experience’ are also being considered for the area, which attracts significant
numbers of tourists outside the whale watching season.
Along the Fleurieu Peninsula south of Adelaide, land‐based whale watching is a popular activity between the
months of June and November. Short‐beaked common and Indo‐Pacific bottlenose dolphins can be seen
year‐round in the waters off the Fleurieu Peninsula, while southern right and humpback whales attract the
majority of attention between May and October. It has been estimated that in 2008, nearly 160,000 land‐
based whale watching tourists visited the Fleurieu Peninsula. Popular locations for whale watching include
Goolwa Beach, Middleton Beach, Port Elliot and Waitpinga Beach.
Indo‐Pacific bottlenose dolphins are the main focus of the boat‐based industry in South Australia with only
one boat‐based operator offering large cetacean watching (in Kangaroo Island). Vessels range from large to
small capacity vessels, as well as kayaks. Two operators also offer swim‐with dolphin tours.
In 2005, the Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary (ADS) Act 2005 was proclaimed, creating a sanctuary for bottlenose
dolphins in the Port River and Barker Inlet area. Dolphin watching tourism in the area is currently minimal
36 AAGR from 1998 to 2008
171