Case Study - Network for Business Sustainability

Engaging the Community: A Knowledge Project
monitoring the effects of whale watching on whales. The challenge, however, will be to ensure that the
persons assisting in this research receive sufficient training in scientific methods of capturing data such
as population size, habitat, and behaviour. Sustainable management of the whale watching industry can
best be achieved through continuing co-operation between research, conservation, and commercial
interests. Research, education, and monitoring are essential parts of a sustainable whale watching
industry and these activities will assist in determining whether the southern resident killer whale
population is in fact declining and whether it is threatened by whale watching or other activities.
The knowledge possessed by whale watch tour operators represents a significant resource. Most tour
operators spend hundreds of hours on the water during the whale watching season and are often the
first to become aware of the arrival of killer whales in the inland waters of BC and the San Juan Islands.
They have information about whale sightings, feeding locations, and patterns of habitat that may be
very useful to researchers and conservation efforts.
Government Regulation
Government action has increased in response to a heightened public sense of the importance of proper
whale watching management. The regulation of behaviours impacting killer whales in the San Juan
Islands and Straight of Georgia is further complicated by the human boundary between Canadian and
U.S. waters. In the U.S. marine mammals are managed by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
which has sole jurisdiction and supersedes any state or local government. In Canada, the Department of
Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is responsible for marine mammal conservation through the Marine
Mammal Regulations (MMR) of 1993 passed under the Fisheries Act of 1993, and the Species At Risk Act
(SARA) of 2004 (see Table 1 for details).
Government involvement in regulating whale watching industry practices has been slow to develop. In
Canada, the DFO has not been a significant enforcement presence in the BC region apart from a few
high profile cases of prosecutions under the harassment regulations of the Marine Mammal Act, nor has
it historically taken a major role in shaping whale watching industry practices in the BC region. In the
State of Washington there is a minimum approach distance regulation of 100 yards. However, in British
Columbia there are no specific marine wildlife viewing regulations.
There has been some collaboration between US and Canadian authorities. For example, the U.S.
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife teamed
up with DFO (Pacific Region) to provide more water coverage during peak whale watching months in
high traffic areas. The DFO has instructed fisheries enforcement officers to spend a portion of their
water time observing whale watch activities in Canadian waters. While the enforcement is largely for
observing and providing additional support for the education and monitoring programs, it is also there
to uphold existing U.S. MMPA, and Canadian MMR and SARA regulations.
The whale watching industry is not comprehensively monitored through government regulation in either
the U.S. or Canada. As a result the industry has turned to self-regulation, particularly through the
WWOANW Best Practice Guidelines. As outlined below, non-governmental organizations such as
6