MANAGING TOURIST

INTERACTIONS WITH
MARINE WILDLIFE
[Writer]
[Institute]
[Date]
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Introduction

The coastal marine environment across the world is valued in many different ways by an
extensive range of users. As coastal marine is located at the border between the worlds of marine
and terrestrial territories, it can be used for both recreational and commercial fishing and for
tourism as well. The local communities as tourists also value this environment, and it is seen as
crucial by local tribes. The New Zealand Maori is no exception and it has historical and cultural
significance for it. Likewise, it is of important spiritual value for people who live around the
coast, as it is an integral part of their individuality. In contrast, this environment may be viewed
as a commodity by commercial fisheries and the ecotourism industry. Although their aim is to
protect it, the basic intention is to get the utmost economic value while making sure that they can
continue to take advantage of it in the future. Thus, priority is not always the conservation on the
marine wildlife.

This assignment aims to critically explore and discuss the issue (or issues) that are the
subject of the various stakeholders in managing tourist interactions with marine wildlife.

Overview of the Issue

New Zealand Maori has been experiencing negative environmental impacts posed by the
tourist industry

New Zealand Maori has been going through some adverse environmental impacts posed
by the tourist industry. Discussing this issue is important because adverse environment impacts
of tourism need to be reduced and the objective aim must be towards adopting a green marine
environment. Thus, maintaining long-term sustainability of tourist industry in Maori and
extracting core benefits from it are major challenges. Tourism plays a pivotal role in the overall
economic development, conservation of natural resources and in creating opportunity for locals’
community development and empowerment. If various stakeholders want tourists to behave in a
specific way, then they need to tell them what they want. Indeed, only knowledge may not be
enough, to motivate positive behaviours in situations of wildlife tourism, it is surely one of the
most essential conditions (Gray, 2000, p.26-30). Hence, interpreting in sustainable wildlife
tourism is a challenge for various stakeholders because they need to inform tourists of the
consequences of their specific negative behaviours when they interact with the marine wildlife.
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Critical Review of Articles

Higham (1998) confirmed that a little doubt exists that wildlife is a more fragile resources
in the tourism industry. He found that there are many wildlife species in small isolated pockets of
New Zealand that are susceptible to impact. He also confirmed this as a highly complex area of
research. Baseline data, devoid of which impacts that may be concerned to tourism are not
possible to precisely calculate, are not easy to meet, and this difficulty will always online to
disagreement. However, Gordon’s study presents statistically crucial impacts due to tourist
observation vessels, and then gives deliberation to long-term biological effects. All the aspects of
conceptual framework for non-consumptive wildlife tourism presented by Duffus and Dearden
are maintained by Higham (1998). As such, those managing the Taiaroa Head Flora and
FaunaReserve (DOC) and visitors to it Otago PeninsulaTrust (OPT) needs to address the
dynamic change and its related issues in contacted wildlife species, user specialisation and site
ecology at this setting (Higham, 1998). Without purposeful management action, all three will
clearly evolve to the loss of the marine wildlife, and only proper management, site users and the
setting of the engagement between tourists and wildlife is effective (Higham, 1998).

In their study, Lusseau and Higham (2004) emphasise the sustainable development in the
marine ecotourism field and for this, research with exact scientific methods is necessary, and that
the final research findings are followed. In marine wildlife, there is a growing appreciation of
behaviour change as a result of engagement with tourist vessels (Lusseau and Higham, 2004).
They found that less is recognised regarding the biological implication of behaviour changes.
Moreover, for the species’ energetic budget there are major consequences of disruption of
bottlenose dolphins in resting and socialising as two behavioural states (Lusseau and Higham,
2004). On the basis of the collection and examination of spatio-ecological data, this information
facilitates with a crucial basis for delineating critical habitats (Lusseau and Higham, 2004). Thus,
it appears that in the possible contexts like Doubtful Sound, a solution is provided by multi-level
marine mammal sanctuary through which the consequences of tourism activities on bottlenose
dolphins can be mitigated devoid of hazarding the sustainability of operational activities of the
commercial tourism (Lusseau and Higham, 2004).

Higham, Bejder and Lusseau (2008) found that the entire world has no comprehensive
management regime where tourists interact with cetaceans in the wild, and it is evident that there
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is higher demand for tourist interactions with cetaceans in the wild, through which a challenge is
constituted for management. There are long-term biological effects for wildlife due to short-term
behaviour changes in animals. In this study, Higham, Bejder and Lusseau (2008), in the context
of whale-watching management, describe the interaction of the global, regional or national, and
local policy, planning and management settings. They proposed a management model, which is
integrated and adaptive, based on delineating and monitoring of limits of acceptable change
parameters with the aim of addressing present-day limitations in the effective sustainable
management of marine wildlife (Higham, Bejder and Lusseau, 2008). They emphasise that there
is the need to develop and implement an effective and comprehensive management approach for
effective and sustainable management of tourist interactions with wild’s cetaceans. The proposed
integrated and adaptive management approach shows the value of incorporating the perspectives
more than a few stakeholders (Higham, Bejder and Lusseau, 2008).

Critical Analysis of the Challenges and Issues

Coastal managers are responsible for making sure the values of all stakeholders which is
quite complex task and the conflict between groups make this task more difficult (Kittinger et al.,
2011). However, it is unfortunate due need to balance a variety of perspectives, groups can at
times feel that their perspectives are not paid attention, and this is especially with entertaining
tourists and fishermen. This group of stakeholders has less power, political and economic, than
others and they frequently feel they are not properly represented in the process of management.
Peart (2008, p.7-9) confirmed this idea by showing that regimes for environmental safety or
resource management at the broader level fail in considering the needs of recreational fishers. In
contrast, he also notes that despite their superior economic impact, fisheries working
commercially can feel endangered too by recreational tourists, and the reason is the perceived
absence of regulations and improper monitoring which this group is considered to be subject to
(Peart, 2008, p.7-9). For all stakeholders, a feeling of jealousy between groups can deter policy
making by making it tricky to feel they are justly treated. At times, coastal managers have
accidentally exacerbated issues when they appease all stakeholders.

The Individual Transferrable Quota (ITQ) was established with the aim of managing
recreational and commercial fisheries of New Zealand in order for reducing overfishing, and this
was accomplished by restricting how much fishermen were capable of catching (Branch, 2009,
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p.40). Of the total allowable catch fishermen were each given a proportion, which could then be
employed or sold to fishing firms to add to their quota. This management programme, to some
extent, fostered equality as fishermen working recreationally were remunerated for the taking of
their fish. While this did consider issues, both economic and environmental, it did not accurately
take the social impacts in to account. When there was no ITQ, local communities frequently
relied on fishing because it was food and employment source for them. Of smaller local fisheries,
buying-out has thus been destructive to these communities (Branch, 2009, 40-41). This shows
that more considerations are needed about social privileges in the management process and the
stakeholders’ capability of raising their concerns and increasing this if required.

In addition to managing internal conflict, commercial and recreational fisheries can

contradict the ecotourism industry. In the Hauraki Gulf, ecotourism is predominantly revolved
around the experiences of watching whale and dolphin. The commercial fishing, by means of
overfishing, is able to harm the ecosystems of marine wildlife. Further, fisheries are also able to
kill or at least injure wildlife if specific techniques are adopted for fishing, thus, lead to a threat
to ecotourism. Commercial fisheries, conversely, are considered as desiring the utilisation of
nature for financial interests (Peart, 2008, p.7-9). Likewise, the rights of fisheries can be tourism
industry interrupted by tourism industry through their activities of preserving marine wildlife.
Thus, they are most certainly to promote the establishment of marine reserves. These
destinations can prohibit fishing in a certain region even over a period of years. It is the fact that
marine reserves, when successful, are recognised to enhance fish stocks, this can consume much
time. Fishers are excluded, but ecotourism is optimistically affected in having access to a more
prolific marine environment.

Local communities are another major group of stakeholders, who have a direct financial
interest in the Hauraki Gulf. Fisheries have the strong potential to create job opportunities for
local community members, allowing for its sustained function. However, it is necessary to note
that much of the proportions of profits are directed out of the country. Higher percentage of
money goes to shareholders and most fish is exported. In the same way, ecotourism generates
just a limited amount which assists in increasing revenue in the nearby area. Thus, tourists are
enticed by it to places in and around the Hauraki Gulf, but the higher proportion of the amount
earned will be set aside as profit for the firm. Consequently, debate is important about to what
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level economic interests and gains received by local communities should weigh environmental
cost more heavily (Pascoe et al., 2009). Local communities have absolute rights, under the
Treaty of Waitangi, to the Hauraki Gulf’s resources.

While both the fisheries and ecotourism industries make efforts to reduce the
environmental impacts, both stakeholders can still be detrimental to marine wildlife. There can
be major impact of intensive fishing s on the marine species. The rate at which fishes are
extracted by fisheries from the ocean, although economically sustainable, may not lead to utmost
social or environmental value (Hanich, Teo and Tsamenyi, 2010, p.86). Contrary to plan or
expectation, research also points out that the marine life is also affected by ecotourism, and the
study of Lusseau et al. (2008) is its best example. They paid attention to the ecotourism’s
impacts on dolphin behaviour and found that the boat interactions significantly disrupted
foraging and resting bouts of dolphins (Lusseau et al., 2008, p.290). Moreover, the ecotourism
firms observed majority of the marine species as to be endangered (Miller et al., 2011, p.101).
Consequently, these activities could have serious impact on the Hauraki Gulf environment.

Conclusion

As the management in the Hauraki Gulf is complex in nature, one of the important
approaches is finding an effective solution through which the ideas of all stakeholders can be
integrated well. It is important to comprehend how various stakeholders give value to and
interact with one another and the environment and it is feasible to make a more sustainable
future. Despite anything to the contrary, it seems that there is no stakeholder who is being given
an equal say. The economic interests frequently drown out local communities. The main cause of
conflict is fragmented management, which ultimately leads to improper communication between
stakeholders within and between diverse industries. Thus, the challenging and problematic issues
on which stakeholders might be settled are unable to be resolved. Becoming more consistent,
cohesive and flexible is necessary to make sure more successful and sustainable Hauraki Gulf’s
management and to ensure that every voice is paid attention.
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References
Branch, T., 2009. How do individual transferable quotas affect marine ecosystems?. Fish and
Fisheries, 10(1), pp.39-57.

Gray, J., 2000. The measurement of marine species diversity, with an application to the benthic
fauna of the Norwegian continental shelf. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and
Ecology, 250(1-2), pp.23-49.

Hanich, Q., Teo, F. and Tsamenyi, M., 2010. A collective approach to Pacific islands fisheries
management: Moving beyond regional agreements. Marine Policy, 34(1), pp.85-91.

Higham, J., 1998. Tourists and albatrosses: the dynamics of tourism at the Northern Royal
Albatross Colony, Taiaroa Head, New Zealand. Tourism Management, 19(6), pp.521-531.

Higham, J., Bejder, L. And Lusseau, D., 2008. An integrated and adaptive management model to
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Kittinger, J., Dowling, A., Purves, A., Milne, N. and Olsson, P., 2011. Marine Protected Areas,
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Sound, New Zealand. Tourism Management, 25(6), pp.657-667.

Lusseau, D., Binedell, V., Wiseman, N. and Orams, M., 2008. Tourism affects the behavioural
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Miller, M., Auyong, J., Lück, M., Orams, M., Myles, P. and Wilks, J., 2011. A Field Engages:
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Pascoe, S., Proctor, W., Wilcox, C., Innes, J., Rochester, W. and Dowling, N., 2009. Stakeholder
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Peart, R., 2008. Integrating the management of New Zealand's coasts: challenges and prospects.
[online] Available at: http://www.waikato.ac.nz/fass/Conserv-Vision/proceedings/Peart.pdf.
The University of Waikato, pp.1-16.