Managing swim with wild dolphin tourism in Australia: guidelines, operator practices and research on tourism impacts

Abstract

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops spp.) are the primary target species for commercial dolphin tourism in Australia. This includes dolphin-watching boat tours, swimming with wild dolphin tours, and habituated wild dolphin-feeding programs. This paper focuses on commercial swim with dolphin tours. These tours have varied modes of in-water encounters with wild dolphins, from free swimming, mermaid lines, boom nets, and the use of motorised water scooters. This paper reviews the current management of dolphin swim tourism based on academic articles and government reports or guidelines about wild dolphin interaction, supported by other media articles and the websites of dolphin tour operators. The Australian National Guidelines for Whale and Dolphin Watching 2005 specify legal standards and best practice procedures for dolphin interaction. However, there are still variations in wild dolphin swim encounters between different government jurisdictions and also the practices of dolphin tour operators. Procedures that are contrary to national or state guidelines for dolphins include some operators breaching approach distances and times, the direction of approach and swim times. This paper examines the guidelines and practices of swim with dolphin tours in Australia, and makes recommendations for future research and management of wild dolphin tourism.