Article: Tourism harming Mexico’s whale sharks

[jlevine]

I came across this and thought I'd post.

Tourism harming Mexico

 

[mmmbelows]

Some interesting numbers thrown around there.

320 licenses? If that's true that is a surprisingly high number, sad to see Mexico always too willing to exploit any situation for financial gain. 320 licenses potentially puts 3000 people into the water, number seems very high.

20-30% of the whale sharks are hit by propellers? Again a really surprisingly high number. That would mean that within 3 years every whale shark has been hit by a prop.

I've always thought that Mexico should ban the use of the whale shark operators being able to offer a money back guarantee, it puts too much pressure on the captains and guides, they are obviously severely penalized by their superiors if they ever allow a customer to demand a refund, I've witnessed the ridiculous situation that happens when the whale sharks are sparse the scene becomes extreme.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Reading this, I almost feel that as responsible people of the world, we should not indulge ourselves by participating in this particular sightseeing activity.

 

[Steve_C]

20-30% of the whale sharks are hit by propellers? Again a really surprisingly high number. That would mean that within 3 years every whale shark has been hit by a prop..

Actually, it does not mean that since the events are not indpendent. The same shark could be hit several times. Taking the larger number of 30% and saying that there is a .7 probability of not being hit in one year we get the probability of not being hit in three years is about .7 x .7x.7 = 0.34 or 2 in 3. If we take the 20% we get 51.2% or about 1 in 2. This also assumes that the whale shark population each year consists of the same population.

Not saying that it is not a real problem. But good to have the correct data.

Since whale sharks can be at the surface interesting to know how many are hit at sea by nondive boats. Happens a lot with manatees.

 

[kmurray719]

I came across this and thought I'd post.

Tourism harming Mexico

That article seems very biased to me, and light on actual documentation. Where are they getting their numbers? Who are their "experts"? I'm fairly certain that I heard that the number of permits was actually LESS this year than last, not increased. And yes, many whale sharks have propeller scars, but it is very unlikely it's from the tour boats. They are very careful around the sharks. Marine creatures EVERYWHERE get hit by boats all the time--manatees, whales, etc. It is not something related to the whale shark tourism at all.

The article quotes that swimmers are supposed to be one meter away from the sharks and that many people break that rule. When I went to Isla Mujeres this summer, the rule was 6 feet/2 meters away, and I didn't see anyone in the water closer than that. I also observed the boats being careful to not get close to the whale sharks, and dropping swimmers so that they had to swim to the sharks.

This article seems to be written by someone who has some kind of general issue with the swimming with the whale sharks and hasn't bothered to use actual facts to write it!

 

[Steve_C]

The article says "between 20 and 30 percent of the sharks are injured by boat propellers." It does not say that is each year. It sounds more like that is the percent of the population that has been hit at some time in their life. Like with manatees you see a lot of them with propellor marks on their backs.

 

[drrich2]

Making an animal worth money can go a long way towards promoting its conservation. Cows, chickens and pigs are pretty common! We should be mindful of our impact, both good and bad.