‘It can provoke significant effects’

Mexico’s marine tourism industry, which draws in tens of thousands of tourists during whale mating season, largely ignores important guidelines protecting the health and well-being of whales, as reported by Inside Climate News.

What’s happening?

Each year, whales migrate from up the Pacific Coast in the U.S. down to Bahía de Banderas, or Banderas Bay, for warmer climates during the winter. According to Ecobac, from 1996 to 2016, 2,272 unique whales visited the bay.

“Bahía de Banderas is the most important reproduction site for humpback whales along Mexico’s continental coastline,” said PhD student and marine biologist, Iyari Espinoza.

The increase in whale activity draws numerous tourists to the area, mainly from the U.S. and Canada, who go on whale watching boats every winter.

Because of the importance of the bay to whales and their mating season, the Mexican Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) outlined guidelines for their safety in 2011. These regulations include specifying proper distance to view whales, imposing speed limits, and prohibiting swimming and diving.

However, according to a study published in Ocean & Coastal Management, these guidelines have not been followed in the past 14 years. The researchers attended 303 sightseeing events over the course of four years, finding that 88% of these whale watching events breached at least one of the guidelines.

The study outlined some causes of these breaches, including weather conditions, lack of proper navigational equipment on boats, and pressure from tourists on tour guides.

Why are these whale-watching guidelines important?

When sightseeing tours ignore the guidelines set forth for the whales’ protection, this causes the whales to expend more energy to avoid tours and react to human activity.

“Tourists will frequently pressure tour guides into approaching the whales more closely, and service providers will in turn approach the whales too rapidly to provoke the whales and make them leap out of the water,” said Gisela Heckel, a professor of conservation biology at the Ensenada Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education.

This extra energy can have drastic effects on whale populations, especially for mothers and their calves. According to the study, researchers found that 35% of the sightings involved mother whales and their offspring. “These are the most vulnerable groups,” said Espinoza. “They are in their stage of growth, breastfeeding and learning.”

“When their energy reserves are exhausted as a product of tourism pressure, it can provoke significant effects at an energy level and therefore at a population level,” said Espinoza.

This is even more significant as four out of 14 humpback whale population segments are protected as endangered, according to NOAA.

A decline in whale populations is not just bad for their own species, but for humans as well. Whales have been found to help marine environments by maintaining the food cycle and reducing rising global temperatures by helping capture carbon in the oceans.

What’s being done about protecting whales in Banderas Bay?

In Banderas Bay, whale sharks are another market for local tourism. When local officials noticed whale sharks with injuries caused by boats, SEMARNAT declared the area a protected space for whale sharks in 2018. However, they still saw lesions on whale sharks indirectly caused by boats, even after the guidelines. So, Whale Shark Mexico proposed further changes to protect whale sharks, including adding federal personnel on site and dynamic boating changes based on the number of sharks in the water at a given time.

“We might be better off than other places,” said Alberto García, the executive director of Whale Shark Mexico. “But that doesn’t mean we cannot keep improving.”

For humpback whales, researchers suggest similar improvements to local guidelines. Espinoza, for one, suggests giving greater authority to monitoring from PROFEPA. “It is the only authority with the faculties to sanction and even take away permits from [non-compliant] companies,” she said.

She also said greater awareness among tourists can help improve the conditions for whales. “In many regions of the world, it has been demonstrated that raising awareness not only among tour guides but also among tourists can help with the issue of compliance,” she said.

Advancements in other technology, such as cutting-edge satellite technology, can also help by pinpointing specific dangers for migrating whales.

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