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Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Swimming with humans: biotelemetry reveals effects of “gold standard” regulated tourism on whale sharks
Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Vol.33(1), pp.85-104
2025
Abstract
Wildlife tourism can benefit conservation of target species, however, it can have detrimental effects on animal behaviour and physiology. Whale shark Rhincodon typus tourism has seen recent rapid growth globally, but methods and regulations vary widely. Ningaloo Reef, Australia is considered “gold standard” whale shark tourism management due to legal regulation, strict enforcement, and high compliance. Rather than relying on observational data, we used biotelemetry to collect high-resolution data (20 Hz) on whale sharks’ movement behaviour in the presence or absence of tourists. Tourism encounters lasted an average of 62 min and swimming with tourists increased the activity levels of larger (> 7 m) but not smaller sharks. Given that activity levels positively correlate with energetic costs, it is likely the 18% increase seen in activity of large sharks would have incurred additional energetic costs. However, when considered as a proportion of daily energy requirements, these additional costs were only incurred for an average of 4% of a whale shark’s day. The tourism-induced impacts we found on the endangered whale sharks at this highly regulated tourism site would not have been apparent from purely observational studies, highlighting the utility of biotelemetry to quantify tourism-related impacts on wildlife.
Details
- Title
- Swimming with humans: biotelemetry reveals effects of “gold standard” regulated tourism on whale sharks
- Authors
- Samantha D Reynolds (Corresponding Author) - The University of QueenslandJames Redcliffe (Author) - Swansea UniversityBradley M Norman (Author) - ECOCEAN Inc. (Australia)Rory P Wilson (Author) - Swansea UniversityMark Holton (Author) - Swansea UniversityCraig E Franklin (Author) - The University of QueenslandRoss G Dwyer - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Publication details
- Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Vol.33(1), pp.85-104
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Date published
- 2025
- DOI
- 10.1080/09669582.2024.2314624
- ISSN
- 1747-7646; 0966-9582
- Copyright note
- © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
- Data Availability
- The data that support the findings of this study are stored on The University of Queensland’s Research Data Manager and available from the corresponding author, SDR, upon reasonable request.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991008895902621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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