Tourist spots around the globe offer people a chance to swim with whales and dolphins in their natural environment, but just what impact do these activities have on the marine mammals concerned?
Cetacean biologist Maddalena Fumagalli investigated these issues in a study on wild spinner dolphins in the southern Egyptian Red Sea in the lagoons of Samadai and Satayah. Tourists from nearby hotels are taken on boats to places in the lagoons and surveys found at Satayah, where there are no regulations, dolphins are repeatedly approached by swimmers and motorboats for up to 9 hours each day, which is clearly impacting on the welfare of the Satayah dolphins which are being adversely affected by the unregulated tourism. At Samadai lagoon there were more swimmers, fewer boats and the tourist programme is regulated, however, this area is used by pods of spinner dolphins to rest/sleep during the day, making it vital for their wellbeing, therefore when tourists do approach them their rest is disturbed.
The findings were recently published in Royal Society Open Science. An interview with Ms Fumagalli, who spoke to then about her study, and the published paper can be found at this link.
