Abstract
The concurrent increase in marine tourism and vessel traffic around the world highlights the need for developing responsible whale watching guidelines. To determine the impact of vessel presence on humpback whale behaviors in Maui Nui, a land-based study was conducted from 2015 to 2018 in Maui, Hawai'i. Theodolite tracks were used to summarize humpback whale swim speed, respiration rate, dive time, and path directness to determine the potential impacts of various types of vessel presence on whale behavior. Vessel presence, proximity, and approach type in conjunction with biological parameters were used in a generalized additive modeling framework to explain changes in whale behaviors. The results presented here show increases in swim speed, respiration rate, and path directness in conjunction with decreasing dive times, which has been shown to be an energetically demanding avoidance strategy. These observations, in conjunction with increasing awareness on the implication of non-lethal effects of human disturbance and changing oceanic environments on humpback whales, highlights the need for a pre-cautionary approach to management. Stricter guidelines on whale watching will limit the level of disturbance to individual humpback whales in Hawai'i and ensure they maintain the fitness required to compensate for varying ecological and anthropogenic conditions.
Highlights
The concurrent recovery of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) populations from exploitation (Bettridge et al, 2015) along with increases in vessel traffic has resulted in increased interactions between whales and vessels
The present study found significant changes in humpback whale behavior relating to vessel presence, which suggests that the current regulations are not sufficient for minimizing behavioral responses
Observed changes were likely short-term, the occurrence of disturbance on breeding grounds increases the potential risk by reducing humpback whale energy stores in food limited conditions (Williams et al, 2011)
Summary
The concurrent recovery of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) populations from exploitation (Bettridge et al, 2015) along with increases in vessel traffic has resulted in increased interactions between whales and vessels. In Hawai’i, the frequency of collisions between vessels and humpback whales has increased by ∼150% from 2000 to 2011 (Lammers et al, 2013) in conjunction with a growing tourism industry, which has increased by 25% between 2014 and 2019 (Hawaii Tourism Authority, 2020). The public’s interest in viewing whales in the wild has led to a rapidly growing whale watching industry around the world, that generates billions of dollars in revenue each year (O’Connor et al, 2009). This increased demand for marine tourism needs to occur in conjunction with adequate guidelines and regulations that ensure this activity does not harm the target populations. Outside of the permitted whale watching industry, a variety of commercial and recreation vessels such as kayaks, paddleboards, dive and fishing charters partake in whale watching
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