Au-lunrk632.docx

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 address the long-term sustainability of tourist interactions with cetaceans. Environmental Conservation, 35(04), p.294. Kittinger, J., Dowling, A., Purves, A., Milne, N. and Olsson, P., 2011. Marine Protected Areas, Multiple-Agency Management, and Monumental Surprise in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Journal of Marine Biology, 2011, pp.1-17. Lusseau, D. and Higham, J., 2004. Managing the impacts of dolphin-based tourism through the definition of critical habitats: the case of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops spp.) in Doubtful Sound, New Zealand. Tourism Management, 25(6), pp.657-667. Lusseau, D., Binedell, V., Wiseman, N. and Orams, M., 2008. Tourism affects the behavioural budget of the common dolphin Delphinus sp. in the Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 355, pp.287-295. Miller, M., Auyong, J., Lück, M., Orams, M., Myles, P. and Wilks, J., 2011. A Field Engages: Papers from the 6th International Coastal and Marine Tourism Congress. Tourism in Marine Environments, 7(3), pp.99-112. Pascoe, S., Proctor, W., Wilcox, C., Innes, J., Rochester, W. and Dowling, N., 2009. Stakeholder objective preferences in Australian Commonwealth managed fisheries. Marine Policy, 33(5), pp.750-758.

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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.