leagal aspects of the whale watching.pdf - International Fund for ...

other areas as a result of Mexico’s recent devolution of centralised authority. At present, however, the states have no
resources to exercise such authority effectively.
Regulations adopted in Mexico mainly relate to the gray whale habitat in Baja California Sur and cover Specific
Protected Areas (SPAs) in three winter breeding and calving lagoons. In these SPAs, only permit holders can conduct
whale watching and then only in designated areas. The designated areas have been identified as areas where less
breeding or calving has been found to occur following a 14-year scientific study of whale behaviour in the lagoons.
There is an unique emphasis on allowing the whale to control the nature and duration of the interactions. This
emphasis is a response to the unusually "friendly" behaviour of this species. Rules include: prohibition of touching of
the area around the eyes or the baleen; regulation of speeds in small lagoons; and the protection of islands
designated as bird sanctuaries. Rules have been promulgated in relation to one lagoon concerning tourist camps,
which must be removed entirely at the end of each season.
In part, as a result of a more cooperative approach, there have been no prosecutions since the law was revised in
1996. However, both local fishermen and whale watching boat operators appear to respond well to the
encouragement of self-regulation. Mexico has very limited resources for enforcement. Observation by enforcement
agents has most of the time taken place with the agents standing on the land. As the lagoons concerned are
extremely remote and thus expensive to monitor, encouragement of self-regulation is regarded as the best option in
these circumstances.
NEW ZEALAND
New legislation, the Marine Mammal Protection Regulations 1992, was promulgated under the authority of the
Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) 1978. The MMPA was administered at first by the Ministry of Agriculture
and Fisheries (MAF) but in 1987 the task was transferred to a new Department of Conservation (DOC). As a
precautionary approach, Section 22 of the Act provides for the establishment of Marine Mammal Sanctuaries, two
of which have been created on Banks Peninsula (the Hector’s dolphin breeding area) and in the Auckland Islands
(southern right whales’ breeding area). Following rapid growth in the dolphin and whale watching industries in
these and other areas, Marine Mammal Protection Regulations were drawn up in 1990 to provide the DOC with the
authority to control whale watching operations at Kaikoura. These were revised in 1992 to reflect advances in
scientific information and to deal with rapid growth in whale watching throughout New Zealand. Any commercial
operator who wishes to carry passengers to view marine mammals must now apply for a permit to do so.
Under Section 6 of the Marine Mammal Protection Regulations 1992, the first criterion in issuing a permit is that it
should not contravene the purpose of the MMPA. Secondly, “the commercial operation should not have any
significant adverse effect on the behavioural patterns of the marine mammals to which the application refers.
Additionally it is necessary to have regard to, among other things, the number or effect of existing commercial
operations.”
Other criteria include that:
• it should be in the interest of the conservation, management or protection of the marine mammals that the
permit be issued.
Further criteria require that operators and staff who may come into contact with marine mammals:
• should have sufficient experience with them
• should have sufficient local knowledge of the local area and of sea and weather conditions
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