Whale Watching Worldwide

Mervyn Baldwin (Pleasuresports Gambia Ltd.), and Ruth Leeney (Namibian Dolphin Project)
Kenya
Year Number of
whale
watchers
AAGR Number of
operators
Direct
expenditure
Indirect
expenditure
Total
expenditure
1991 Minimal N/A N/A Minimal Minimal Minimal
1994 Minimal N/A N/A Minimal Minimal Minimal
1998 Minimal N/A N/A Minimal Minimal Minimal
2008 Minimal N/A 27 Minimal Minimal Minimal
Capital City: Nairobi
Whale Watch Locations:
01: Kisite Mpunguti Marine Park
Political unrest in 2008 severely damaged tourism to Kenya,
resulting in minimal whale watching for the year. In recent years
however, whale watching tourist numbers have reportedly been as
high as 10,000 16 ‐ a massive growth since 1998 when minimal
opportunistic whale watching was found only as part of dive tours.
Twenty‐seven operators are known to run trips in Kenya, four of
which are dedicated operators and 23 of which are local boat
owners who run trips depending on tourist demand. The principal location for dolphin watching tourism is
the Kisite Mpunguti Marine Park (Kisite Marine Park and adjacent Mpunguti Marine Reserve) in the south of
Kenya, close to the border with Tanzania. Dolphin watching tours usually depart from nearby Shimoni
village on the mainland.
The principal species encountered is the Indo‐Pacific bottlenose dolphin which is present year‐round and is
regularly encountered both within the Kisite Mpunguti (KM) MPA and in the Wasini channel, around the
eastern end of Wasini Island which constitutes the main tour route. A small resident population of Indo‐
Pacific humpback dolphins are also present year‐round but the dolphins rarely frequent the KM MPA and are
most often sighted on the mainland side of the Wasini channel around in to Funzi bay and so are not often
encountered by tour boats. Spinner dolphins are seasonal visitors in February and March but are not often
encountered within the KM MPA itself. Humpback whales are also seasonal visitors between July and
September and mother‐calf pairs may be encountered within both the KM MPA and Wasini channel during
this period though not on a daily basis.
Since 2006, Global Vision International, a UK based NGO with operations in Kenya has been undertaking
research on dolphin populations in and around KM MPA, on behalf of the governmental agency, Kenya
Wildlife Service. The research programme addresses population size and distribution of dolphin species with
longer‐term objectives of monitoring population trends and the impact of tourism as the basis for reviewing
a national code of conduct for dolphin watching introduced by Kenya Wildlife Service in 2007 under the
UNEP / CMS Year of the Dolphin initiative. The code of conduct prohibits explicit swimming with dolphin
activities, feeding of dolphins and regulates the number, proximity and approach of tour boats around
dolphins, however compliance has declined since its introduction.
16 Prior to the political unrest, in recent years as many as 10,000 whale watching tourists per annum may have
undertaken trips in Kenya, with one operator alone accounting for as many as 6,000 of these.
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