Whale Watching Worldwide

Local Case Study: Dominica
According to apocryphal legend, when Christopher Columbus was asked to describe the island he had
named after the day of the week upon which he encountered it – Dominica – he roughly crumpled a piece of
parchment and tossed it upon the table, indicating its mountainous nature and absence of flat land.
Indeed, the youngest island of the lesser Antilles, Dominica is still in the process of being formed by volcanic
activity as may be seen with its famous boiling lake – the second largest hot spring in the world. The
resultant vertical topography, reflected in the pre‐Columbian indigenous Carib name for the island – ‘Wai'tu
kubuli’, meaning ‘Tall is her Body’ ‐ served to limit cultivation and development of the landscape during the
intermittent British Colonial era and consequently Dominica boasts a greater proportion of pristine
rainforest wilderness than its more developed neighbours, affording it the unofficial title of the ‘Nature Isle
of the Caribbean’.
This same topography continues underwater in the sea surrounding the islands, creating deep ocean
trenches close to shore which, combined with the warm, sheltered waters of the island’s west coast, make
this ideal cetacean territory.
Whilst running dive tours for the Anchorage Hotel, Fitzroy Armour began noticing the interest divers showed
in the whales sighted which, combined with Fitzroy’s own interest in these animals as a naturalist and
photographer, led him to begin whale watching tours in 1988. Some five years later Derrek Perryman and
Captain Billy Lawrence became interested in the promise of whale watching and began including it in some
of their diving packages, and in 1995 the company for which they worked, Dive Dominica, began its first
commercial whale watching tours.
Today, Dominica has one of the largest boat‐based commercial whale watching industries in the Caribbean,
taking nearly 15,000 tourists in 2008. Along with St Lucia, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, it has
firmly established whale watching as a significant tourist attraction in the region.
The industry has been proactive in its self‐management in a manner not frequently seen, but is likely to be a
partial reason for its continuing success as it has a unique ability to provide a quality tourism experience.
As noted by Hoyt (1999), the development of the whale watching industry in Dominica has maintained a
strong emphasis upon education and conservation, with multiple workshops between operators, scientists
and government officials, including the close involvement of IFAW.
In the absence of laws regulating whale watching, the Dominican operators have generally adopted and
complied with their own modified system of international regulations which they have termed the Marine
Mammal Code of Conduct. The Dominica Fisheries Division is, at the time of writing this report, in the
process of developing regulations to formalise the good management of whale watching, which has been
submitted to parliament.
Although there are only four operators undertaking whale watch trips in Dominica, all are members of the
pan‐Caribbean cooperative organisation, CARIBwhale. This industry association was founded in 2000 and
formally incorporated in 2007 by over 15 whale watching organisations from various Caribbean nations in
conjunction with IFAW. The organisation is dedicated to fostering an environment that will conserve
cetaceans and their habitat, promoting responsible whale watching and support non‐invasive scientific
research, education and community involvement.
Such a strong commitment from the entire industry ensures a continuing high standard of whale watching in
the country.
249