Dear colleagues,
We are pleased to announce that the following paper is now available online:
Maddalena Fumagalli, Amina Cesario, Marina Costa, John Harraway, Giuseppe
Notarbartolo di Sciara, Elisabeth Slooten (2018). Behavioural responses of
spinner dolphins to human interactions. Royal Society Open Science 5: 172044.
Abstract - There is increasing evidence that whale and dolphin watching
activities have detrimental effects on targeted cetacean populations. In Egypt,
spinner dolphins regularly occur in the resting areas of Samadai, Satayah and
Qubbat’Isa reefs. In-water human interactions with dolphins are regulated with
a time-area closure system at Samadai, unregulated at Satayah and non-existent
at Qubbat’Isa. This provided an ideal experimental setting to advance our
understanding of the effects of tourism on a species highly sensitive to
disturbances. Our study confirmed that the intensity and duration of
interactions, and therefore, dolphin exposure to tourism, differed among the
study sites. Compared with the Qubbat’Isa control site, behavioural reactions
to boats and swimmers at the two tourism sites suggested that dolphin rest was
disrupted, especially around the middle of the day and especially at Satayah,
where dolphin tourism is unregulated. Our results indicate also that the
dolphin protection measures at Samadai reduce the level of disturbance. We
recommend that similar measures be implemented at other dolphin tourism
locations, and that no new operations be initiated until the longterm impacts
on dolphin populations are better understood. Our experience emphasizes the
need to adopt precautionary approaches in research and management of whale and
dolphin watching.
The paper can be found at
http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/5/4/172044
<http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/5/4/172044> (open access)
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any question regarding our
work.
Sincerely,
Maddalena Fumagalli
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