SURVEY ON WHALING VERSUS WHALE-WATCHING IN ICELAND: FIRST CALL FOR
PARTECIPATION
Whale-watching activities, one of the fastest growing sectors of the world
tourism market, began in Iceland in 1990 (Hoyt, 1995), and have enjoyed over
250% annual growth in recent years. Iceland rejoined the IWC in 2002 and
started scientific whaling the following year. Although Iceland’s scientific
whaling programme provided no immediate monetary benefits, rather, amassing a
deficit of €0.5 million per year, nevertheless, Iceland resumed commercial
whaling on 17th October 2006. According to Parsons and Rawles (2003), 79% of
potential whale-watchers would boycott a country conducting hunts for
cetaceans.
Since 2009 the Faxaflói Cetacean Research (www.faxa-cetacean.org) has been
collaborating with a local Icelandic whale-watching company (Elding Hvalaskoðun
Reykjavik ehf, www.elding.is) and the University of Iceland (www.his.is) in
order to learn more about who tourists (visiting Iceland) are and where they
stand on issues such as whaling, whale-watching and whale meat consumption.
Whale-watching tourists boarding daily tours in Faxaflói Bay, Iceland, have
been interviewed using a pre-designed questionnaire in English. Passengers have
responded to questions about whale hunting, whale watching, the coexistence of
these two activities and whale meat consumption within Iceland.
We are seeking collaborations with whale-watching companies outside of Iceland,
which are considered to be similar in size and scope to the whale-watching
operations in Iceland to facilitate comparison among data. The goal of this
collaboration is to investigate whether the resumption of commercial whaling in
Iceland would cause whale-watching tourists to reconsider visiting that
country, and thereby evaluate the potential impact on the whale-watching
market.
Proposed deliverable will include publication in peer-reviewed journals. The
funding agency along with all the collaborating organizations will be
acknowledged in all publications and scientific and public presentations of the
research.
Two dataset of data (from the year 2009 and 2011) collected on board
whale-watch boats in Reykjavik, are available. Additionally, from 1st June to
6th September 2012 groups of volunteers will ask to distribute questionnaires
to tourist in Iceland on board whale-watch boats (for the third year) in
Reykjavik and on land (for the first time) in five different locations in
Reykjavik and vicinity.
This is an initial call and if you have interest in participating into this
collaborative effort, please contact us by emailing Chiara Giulia Bertulli
([email protected]).
Best wishes
Chiara G. Bertulli
On behalf of the Faxaflói Cetacean Research
*********************
Chiara Bertulli PhD student
University of Iceland
Biology Department
Náttúrfræðahús/Askja
Sturlugata 7
101 Reykjavik
Iceland
e-mail:[email protected] / [email protected]
mobile:+354-8618307 (Icelandic) +39-3406933102 (Italian)
skype: chiara.giulia.bertulli
Faxaflói Cetacean Research
Principal Investigator and Research Coordinator
c/o Elding Whale-watching
Ægisgarður 7
101 Reykjavik
Iceland
www.faxa-cetacean.org
_______________________________________________
MARMAM mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/marmam
