Marine Mammals: Fisheries, Tourism and Management Issues

Fisheries, Tourism and Management Issues

Nicholas Gales, Mark Hindell, Roger Kirkwood, Nicholas Gales, Mark Hindell, Roger Kirkwood

• Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
• Year: 2003
• Print ISBN: 9780643069534
• eBook ISBN: 9780643099265
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

Marine Mammals: Fisheries, Tourism and Management Issues brings together contributions from 68 leading scientists from 12 countries to provide a comprehensive, up-to-date review on the way we manage our interactions with whales, dolphins, seals and dugongs. The book examines how we have fared conserving the world's marine mammal populations, with a focus on the key issues of fisheries and tourism.

From a unique southern hemisphere perspective, the authors consider how science informs the culling debate, how wild fisheries and aquaculture interact with marine mammal populations and how we might manage the effects of whale, dolphin and seal watching industries. The authors also address other issues such as the way in which ethics, genetics, acoustics, ecosystem models and pollution influence the management and conservation of marine mammals.

Marine Mammals is an invaluable and accessible resource for all those involved with marine mammals, including scientists, managers, policy makers, industry representatives and students.

Winner of a 2004 Whitley Award.

INTRODUCTION

Marine mammals are often considered as a group by the general public, biologists, natural resource managers and legislators. Nonetheless, they comprise members of three very different orders of animals with different evolutionary histories. The Carnivora includes 36 extant and recently extinct species of seals, sea lions and walruses (Rice 1998) as well as the polar bear and two species of marine otters. Systematists disagree about the exact number of species of the order Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises). Rice (1998) lists 83 species in two sub-orders: the Mysticeti (baleen whales) and Odontoceti (toothed whales). There are four extant species of Sirenia (manatees and dugongs). The gigantic Steller’s sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) was hunted to extinction by sealers in the eighteenth century.

Despite their diverse taxonomic origins, it is sensible to consider marine mammals as a group in developing marine policy, as they are all dependent on aquatic ecosystems for survival (Reynolds et al. 1999). They have evolved similar anatomical, physiological and life history adaptations to aquatic and marine environments including large body size and a long lifespan. A primary reason that marine mammals are inherently vulnerable to overexploitation is that their intrinsic rates of increase are low, less than 10–20%. For some species this value may be as low as 1–3% (Wade and Angliss 1997). This is because they tend to mature late, have a single offspring at intervals of several years and have low natural mortality rates, some living for 100 years or more (Perrin 2002). They represent consummate K-selectors (Pianka 1970.)

Marine mammals are highly valued by humans for cultural and economic reasons, including food and other products (Twiss and Reeves 1999). The consumptive uses of marine mammals include killing them for their meat, oil and skins. Non-consumptive uses include ecotourism (e.g. whale watching), public display and research. Marine mammals are major public attractions as evidenced by the commercial success of oceanaria and whale watching (Reeves and Mead 1999). For example, a recent survey found that commercial whale watching businesses in 87 countries in 1998 attracted more than nine million participants and generated US$1 billion from fees for tours, and expenditures on food, travel, hotels and souvenirs (Hoyt 2000). Their large body size and value to humans makes marine mammals high-profile indicators of the degradation of coastal, marine and some riverine habitats.

Concern about the status of marine mammals has been heightened by the number of species listed as threatened (critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable) on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (Hilton-Taylor 2000). The status of 92 species of marine mammals is as follows: extinct (3 including one sub-species), critically endangered (3), endangered (12), vulnerable (18), data deficient (conservation status cannot be assessed) (40), low risk conservation dependent (15), and low risk not threatened (1). These assessments have been made at a global scale. Many species of marine mammals have huge ranges, and are locally extirpated in parts of their former range (Reynolds et al. 2002.)

The pressures on marine mammals have changed over time. In the past, the major pressures involved consumptive use for food, oil or skins. These pressures have been reduced, although not eliminated, as non-consumptive uses have increased. Many modern pressures stem from the increase in the world’s human population, particularly the proportion of the population living in the coastal zone. As human population increases in coastal areas, so does pressure on coastal ecosystems through habitat loss, fragmentation and change, increased pollution, and demand for coastal resources. Globally, 50% of people live within 60km of the coast. It is likely that this will increase to 75% by 2020 (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in DeMaster et al. 2001). Especially in ‘developing’ countries, the situation has been exacerbated by the displacement and urbanisation of rural human populations, which has led to the loss of traditional values and taboos to resource exploitation. The provision of aid from ‘developed’ countries has increased the efficiency and level of exploitation of coastal resources, often without adequate legislation, enforcement and management (Cockroft, personal communication 2001). Marine mammals are adversely impacted by dams, effluents and all the other agents of habitat destruction (Perrin 2002). For example, the range of the dugong (Dugong dugon) includes at least 37 countries in the tropical Indo-West Pacific region. In a recent survey, coastal development was listed as a problem for the dugong in 31 of these countries and territories (Marsh et al. 2002). The situation is probably similar for many other coastal marine mammals, especially in the tropics. In contrast, very abundant populations of several pinniped species live in polar and sub-polar regions where coastal impacts are insignificant or non-existent.

The other major group of increasingly adverse effects derives from the growth of the world’s fishing industry. In the last 50 years marine fisheries production has increased more than fourfold. However, the rate of increase has dropped to zero in recent years and about three-quarters of individual stocks have been overfished or are being fished at or near the maximum long-term potential catch (for details see DeMaster et al. 2001). Many of the world’s marine mammal species are dependent on fish for food and are likely to have been adversely effected by this resource depletion. A major impact of the world’s fisheries on marine mammals results from their being caught as bycatch. The bycatch sometimes then becomes the target of a directed fishery, particularly in ‘developing’ countries (Perrin 2002.)

This chapter will assess trends in the management of marine mammals in the last ten years. Our objectives are to:

• Present the major trends and patterns, particularly in terms of policy changes;

• Identify major new developments and outstanding problems needing further attention;

• Provide concrete examples of successful or promising efforts by governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental bodies; and

• Provide concrete recommendations to the international community for the next ten years.

Harwood (2001) provides a comprehensive review of the impact of climate change on marine mammals and concludes that, as highly mobile species, marine mammals should have the capacity to respond more rapidly to the effects of climate change than their terrestrial counterparts. However, central place foragers such as many otariid seals may be seriously affected (Harwood 2001). Concern has also been expressed about the impact of climate change on polar bears (IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group, personal communication 2001). In this chapter, we review some of the other major anthropogenic pressures on marine mammal populations and discuss policy responses to those pressures. With the exception of the impacts of sound associated with boating activity, we have not reviewed the impact of underwater sounds on marine mammals but acknowledge that this is an area of burgeoning importance (Marine Mammal Commission 2002).

COMMERCIAL EXPLOITATION OF MARINE MAMMALS

Nature of the threats

Commercial whaling is the most controversial of the anthropogenic pressures on marine mammal populations. Whaling can be traced back to the Stone Age (Gambell 1999), and most whaling activities were probably sustainable until technological advances allowed the exploitation of whales to spread from coastal to offshore waters and from pole to pole, causing the successive depletion of species and stocks, culminating in the decline of the industry itself (Gambell 1999). The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling was signed in 1946 with the aim of providing for the proper conservation of whale stocks and the orderly development of the whaling industry (IWC 1950). Membership of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) is open to any nation that formally adheres to the 1946 Convention. Membership increased from the original 15 whaling nations to 40 nations by 1980. The IWC became dominated by the anti-whaling nations and through the 1970s and 1980s, the number of whales and the areas in which they could be taken by the commercial industry gradually reduced until the Commission introduced a pause in commercial whaling in 1982 (Gambell 1999). The IWC set catch limits at zero for commercial whaling on all stocks effective with the 1986 coastal whaling season and the 1985–86 pelagic whaling season. Despite the Commission’s acceptance of the mathematical and scientific elements of the Revised Management Scheme for estimating sustainable catch limits for baleen whales, there are a number of outstanding matters that have not been resolved and the moratorium on commercial whaling has yet to be revoked.

Based on Article 8 of the International Convention of Regulation of Whaling of 1946 (ICRW), the Japanese government has authorised the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) to kill whales for research purposes since the 1987/88 Antarctic season. The ICRW requires maximum utilisation of the carcasses, offering a basis for the ICR to sell the whale products to finance research and other activities. The maximum number of whales that the ICR is currently permitted to take is 440 southern minke whales (Balaenoptera bonaerensis), 100 North Pacific minke whales (B. acutorostrata), 50 North Pacific Bryde’s whales (B. edeni), and 10 North Pacific sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus). The Institute of Cetacean Research has produced numerous scientific publications from these operations. However, the value of this program has been questioned by some IWC members who have doubted whether: (1) the biological information obtained is critically important for management, (2) the objectives of the study really require lethal methods to be used, and (3) the proposed objectives of the study can be achieved by the program (IWC 2001a.)

From 1988 to 1995, Norwegian scientists conducted a research program that involved taking 289 North Atlantic minke whales (B. a. acutorostrata) for research, including studies of feeding ecology, age determination, and energetics. Since 1996, about 500 North Atlantic minke whales (e.g. 589 whales in 1999 and 487 in 2000) have been caught by Norwegian small-type whaling operations annually. This harvest has been legal under the Convention because the Norwegian government lodged an objection to the moratorium decision. Consequently the moratorium is not binding on the government of Norway. The IWC has adopted non-binding resolutions e...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowlegments
• Contributors
• Dedication
• 1. Strategies For Conserving Marine Mammals
• Part I: Marine Mammalsand Fisheries
• Part II: Marine Mammalsand Tourism
• Part III: Management Issues
• Index