Whale Watching Worldwide

• Local people make up a significant portion of total employees and thereby develop additional skills
and training.
• Local communities also benefit through investment in public infrastructure, while higher tourist
numbers lead to benefits that flow into surrounding businesses, such as procurement for hotels and
spending at local shops and markets.
• Local boat owners (such as fishermen) often supplement their incomes with occasional whale watch
tours, and importantly,
• the tourism marketing networks that foreign investors bring to these regions is often a critical
contribution to the growth and promotion of tourism and whale watching in some of the world’s
most remote locations.
Many additional benefits accrue to local communities due to the foreign investment, rather than in spite of
it. And so, where there is agreed community acceptance of whale watching, an effectively managed industry
has the potential to bring wide economic, social and environmental benefits.
Acknowledgements:
Wildlife Conservation Society, and in particular, Yvette Razafindrakoto
References:
Travels, L 2009, ‘Voi les baleines’, accessed April 2009, available online at:
http://www.maroantsetra.com/pages/baleine.html
MTTC 2009, ‘Maroantsetra Madagascar’s City’, accessed April 2009, available online at:
http://www.travel2mada.com/cities/maroantsetra~.xhtml
Masoala National Park 2009, ‘Masoala National Park (Madagascar) : Masoala guide: nature, faune, flore, mer, tourisme,
decouverte Madagascar’, accessed April 2009, available online at: http://www.masoala.org/eng/index.htm
Cetacean Conservation and Research Program Madagascar 2009, ‘ccrpmadagascar’, accessed April 2009, available
online at: http://www.wcs.org/globalconservation/marine/ccrp/ccrpmadagascar
Cerchio, S, Ersts, P, Pomilla, C, Loo, J, Razafindrakoto, Y, Leslie, M, Andrianrivelo, N, Mindon G, Dushane, S, Murray, A,
Collins, T, and Rosenbaum, H 2008, ‘Revised estimation of abundance for breeding stock C3 of humpback whales,
assessed through photographic and genotypic mark‐recapature data from Antongil Bay, Madagascar, 2000‐2006’, IWC
scientific paper, SC/60/SH32.
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