Swimming with humans: biotelemetry reveals effects of “gold standard” regulated tourism on whale sharks

Reynolds, Samantha D.; Redcliffe, James; Norman, Bradley M.; Wilson, Rory; Holton, Mark; Franklin, Craig E.; Dwyer, Ross G.

doi:10.1080/09669582.2024.2314624

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Swimming with humans: biotelemetry reveals effects of “gold standard” regulated tourism on whale sharks

Samantha D. Reynolds, James Redcliffe, Bradley M. Norman, Rory Wilson

, Mark Holton

, Craig E. Franklin, Ross G. Dwyer

Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Pages: 1 - 20

Swansea University Authors: James Redcliffe, Rory Wilson , Mark Holton

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DOI (Published version): 10.1080/09669582.2024.2314624

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 s...

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Published in:	Journal of Sustainable Tourism
ISSN:	0966-9582 1747-7646
Published:	Informa UK Limited 2024
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa65580

first_indexed	2024-04-04T14:50:20Z
last_indexed	2024-11-28T19:42:01Z
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spelling	2024-11-28T12:19:19.3196960 v2 65580 2024-02-07 Swimming with humans: biotelemetry reveals effects of “gold standard” regulated tourism on whale sharks 4046e46611e52bf1ee798d17411df8e9 James Redcliffe James Redcliffe true false 017bc6dd155098860945dc6249c4e9bc 0000-0003-3177-0177 Rory Wilson Rory Wilson true false 0e1d89d0cc934a740dcd0a873aed178e 0000-0001-8834-3283 Mark Holton Mark Holton true false 2024-02-07 BGPS 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. Journal Article Journal of Sustainable Tourism 0 1 20 Informa UK Limited 0966-9582 1747-7646 Accelerometry; biotelemetry; tourism impacts; sustainable tourism; wildlife tourism 23 2 2024 2024-02-23 10.1080/09669582.2024.2314624 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee SDR was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship and a stipend top-up scholarship from Thyne Reid Foundation. Financial support for the research was provided by the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment awarded to SDR from the Ecological Society of Australia and grants to BMN from the Estate of the late Winifred Violet Scott and The Rolex Awards for Enterprise. 2024-11-28T12:19:19.3196960 2024-02-07T09:36:42.3556376 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences Samantha D. Reynolds 1 James Redcliffe 2 Bradley M. Norman 3 Rory Wilson 0000-0003-3177-0177 4 Mark Holton 0000-0001-8834-3283 5 Craig E. Franklin 6 Ross G. Dwyer 7 65580__29923__da1836687e494d698e1869057a7e497f.pdf 65580.VOR.pdf 2024-04-04T15:50:57.3337789 Output 2991397 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2024 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	Swimming with humans: biotelemetry reveals effects of “gold standard” regulated tourism on whale sharks
spellingShingle	Swimming with humans: biotelemetry reveals effects of “gold standard” regulated tourism on whale sharks James Redcliffe Rory Wilson Mark Holton
title_short	Swimming with humans: biotelemetry reveals effects of “gold standard” regulated tourism on whale sharks
title_full	Swimming with humans: biotelemetry reveals effects of “gold standard” regulated tourism on whale sharks
title_fullStr	Swimming with humans: biotelemetry reveals effects of “gold standard” regulated tourism on whale sharks
title_full_unstemmed	Swimming with humans: biotelemetry reveals effects of “gold standard” regulated tourism on whale sharks
title_sort	Swimming with humans: biotelemetry reveals effects of “gold standard” regulated tourism on whale sharks
author_id_str_mv	4046e46611e52bf1ee798d17411df8e9 017bc6dd155098860945dc6249c4e9bc 0e1d89d0cc934a740dcd0a873aed178e
author_id_fullname_str_mv	4046e46611e52bf1ee798d17411df8e9_*_James Redcliffe 017bc6dd155098860945dc6249c4e9bc__Rory Wilson 0e1d89d0cc934a740dcd0a873aed178e_**_Mark Holton
author	James Redcliffe Rory Wilson Mark Holton
author2	Samantha D. Reynolds James Redcliffe Bradley M. Norman Rory Wilson Mark Holton Craig E. Franklin Ross G. Dwyer
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description	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.
published_date	2024-02-23T20:28:18Z
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Swimming with humans: biotelemetry reveals effects of “gold standard” regulated tourism on whale sharks

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