Humpback whales

[Eric802]

It was pretty neat just to hear their songs underwater when I was in Maui last month. There was one day a pod of (looked like) younger ones was just off Kaanapali beach, close enough that one could've snorkeled out there.

 

[passeparici]

In Tahiti (more exactly Moorea) you can do some snorkeling and see the whales with organised "tours" around september october. It was great... and disappointing ! I was a bit disappointed because there were always some people between me and the whale (we were around 10 in our boat). The mother stay more down deep so you cannot really see her very often but the calves do go up more often and they are also more curious and come to see you. You are never absolutely sure you are going to see them (there were some people with us who did that the day before but saw nothing). Good experience but next time I will ask to privatise the boat and start earlier...

 

[doctormike]

I have been in the water with two of them.

One was off the coast of New Jersey, while hanging on the anchor line doing deco:

The other was on a surface interval in Turks and Caicos:

 

[passeparici]

Nice ! In French Polynesia the boats are forbiden to go so close ! So we had to go quite a long way before meeting them.

 

[Gandalf-the-Diver]

I have heard whale song under water, amazing. Where I dive, better chance of interacting with Orca. Had 3 transients swim by me at 50 meters, while I was on the surface. No amount of splashing by me, got them to take notice.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

This kind of tourism has a negative impact on whales. But I do accept the reality that most people DGAF and are so self-absorbed that they can't see beyond their noses, so even after educating them about the issues, they will not alter their behavior or wishes. Impact to wildlife/sealife will never be a consideration.

Conclusions​

This study highlights that both observing and swimming activities cause avoidance responses from humpback whales in Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga. In particular, mother-calf pairs showed significant vertical avoidance responses, with humpback whale mothers diving for significantly longer periods of time in the presence of vessels and swimmers. Whether the short-term behavioural responses observed in Vava’u humpback whales could cause a long-term detrimental effect at the population level is unknown and needs further investigation. Again, evidence from other studies on the effects of cetacean based tourism suggests that the findings from our study in Vava’u should be cause for concern.

This study also documented low levels of compliance to Tongan regulation with regard to the minimum resting time for whales between interactions with commercial vessels.

The Tongan sub-population of humpback whales still shows little evidence of recovery after the cessation of whaling, in contrast to other regions such as the East and West coasts of Australia [40–42]. Moreover, the Vava’u island group represents one of the most important breeding and calving grounds for this population. That is, humpback whales give birth and raise calves in the sheltered waters of the archipelago, readying them for the long southward migration to Antarctica [39]. The behavioural responses documented in this study underlie the risk of detrimental effects on this population of whales targeted by swim-with-whale tourism. The rapid growth of swim-with-whales industry experienced by Vava’u over a short period of time [5] and the tour operator focus on mother-calf pairs is concerning, especially in the light of the poor compliance with regulations and the lack of enforcement of formal regulations documented by this study (Tongan Ministry of Tourism, personal communication, October 8, 2017). Some management actions have been recommended by the authors and are currently under consideration by the Tongan Ministry of Toursim:

1. Focus on increasing compliance with the existing whale-watching regulations;
2. Reduce the number of swim-with-whales licensed vessels;
3. Introduce a break time in the middle of the day (eg., from12 to 2 pm) when swim-with-whales operations are not allowed.

Overall, our findings reinforce the urge for a more cautious and effective approach to the management of swimming activities with humpback whales, both for Tongan authorities and other governments willing to permit these activities.

Effects of whale-based tourism in Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga: Behavioural responses of humpback whales to vessel and swimming tourism activities

Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga, is a well-established whale-watching destination in the South Pacific. Between July and October, the waters around the archipelago represent one of the most important breeding grounds for Oceania humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). The Tongan government allows...

journals.plos.org

 

[ABUnderwater]

This kind of tourism has a negative impact on whales. But I do accept the reality that most people DGAF and are so self-absorbed that they can't see beyond their noses, so even after educating them about the issues, they will not alter their behavior or wishes. Impact to wildlife/sealife will never be a consideration.

Conclusions​

This study highlights that both observing and swimming activities cause avoidance responses from humpback whales in Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga. In particular, mother-calf pairs showed significant vertical avoidance responses, with humpback whale mothers diving for significantly longer periods of time in the presence of vessels and swimmers. Whether the short-term behavioural responses observed in Vava’u humpback whales could cause a long-term detrimental effect at the population level is unknown and needs further investigation. Again, evidence from other studies on the effects of cetacean based tourism suggests that the findings from our study in Vava’u should be cause for concern.

This study also documented low levels of compliance to Tongan regulation with regard to the minimum resting time for whales between interactions with commercial vessels.

The Tongan sub-population of humpback whales still shows little evidence of recovery after the cessation of whaling, in contrast to other regions such as the East and West coasts of Australia [40–42]. Moreover, the Vava’u island group represents one of the most important breeding and calving grounds for this population. That is, humpback whales give birth and raise calves in the sheltered waters of the archipelago, readying them for the long southward migration to Antarctica [39]. The behavioural responses documented in this study underlie the risk of detrimental effects on this population of whales targeted by swim-with-whale tourism. The rapid growth of swim-with-whales industry experienced by Vava’u over a short period of time [5] and the tour operator focus on mother-calf pairs is concerning, especially in the light of the poor compliance with regulations and the lack of enforcement of formal regulations documented by this study (Tongan Ministry of Tourism, personal communication, October 8, 2017). Some management actions have been recommended by the authors and are currently under consideration by the Tongan Ministry of Toursim:

1. Focus on increasing compliance with the existing whale-watching regulations;
2. Reduce the number of swim-with-whales licensed vessels;
3. Introduce a break time in the middle of the day (eg., from12 to 2 pm) when swim-with-whales operations are not allowed.

Overall, our findings reinforce the urge for a more cautious and effective approach to the management of swimming activities with humpback whales, both for Tongan authorities and other governments willing to permit these activities.

Effects of whale-based tourism in Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga: Behavioural responses of humpback whales to vessel and swimming tourism activities

Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga, is a well-established whale-watching destination in the South Pacific. Between July and October, the waters around the archipelago represent one of the most important breeding grounds for Oceania humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). The Tongan government allows...

journals.plos.org

Thanks for sharing that article. I've heard a lot of anecdotal discussions about impacts of similar eco-tourism operations, but I've haven't seen such a good quantitative study before.

I've worked a few seasons out on the Silver Bank in the Dominican Republic doing snorkeling trips with humpbacks, and it would be interesting to compare the operators in Tonga against how we operated in the DR. We always were under the understanding that we had better regulations governing us and just generally operated more carefully around the whales compared to the Pacific. Just one piece from that article, they talk about how the "J approach" (where the boat passes the whales and then dumps people in the water in front of them) was responsible for the most whale avoidance, and that's never an approach that we used.

Either way, good article. Definitely food for thought for anyone going on trips to see humpbacks (or really any type of eco-tourism). We're always going to have some impact with our presence.

 

[MrVegas]

Interesting. I've always wanted a shot at being in the water with whales, but opportunities are limited and expensive, and I certainly get that people don't want operators swarming over them. On the other hand, sometimes I do wonder about the impact issue, at least if things are well managed. I did the manatee snorkel on the Crystal River in Florida, and that was lots of fun. The operator was very careful with warnings and instructional videos. Many of the manatees seemed to be as interested in the people as the people were in them and were not all that shy.

 

[passeparici]

In French Polynesia the boats have to stay quite far away (maybe 200 m), the number of boats is fixed by rules hence the number of people is limited. Also quite a few of those humpback whales have seen humans for all their life so they are used to our presence and they don't recognize us as predators. I will certainly not say this study is wrong but doing things with precautions, rules and understanding of the whales has to be much better then dropping people in front of the whales and then has less impact (even none ? That should be studied).

​

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Either way, good article. Definitely food for thought for anyone going on trips to see humpbacks (or really any type of eco-tourism). We're always going to have some impact with our presence.

It is a dream of mine to dive/swim with humpbacks but given the impact and that humpbacks have enough stress, I have placed their welfare over my desires until scientists confirm that certain practices have negligible impact.

I do expect to be in the minority.