Does whale watching contribute to conservation in marine protected areas? a case of Bahía De San Antonio, Patagonia, Argentina

SARTI, GUADALUPE; ENCABO, MATILDE; GONZÁLEZ, RAÚL

Management of Tourism Ecosystem Services in a Post Pandemic Context

Taylor and Francis

Lugar: London; Año: 2022; p. 1 - 16

The United Nations predicts that ecotourism will grow rapidly in the COVID-19 post-pandemic context, increasing the pressure on protected environments and sites if they are not properly planned and managed. For this reason, it´s necessary to develop strategies to reduce the impact of tourism on the ecosystems and biodiversity and strengthening the management and conservation. Whale Watching (WW) tourism can help raising awareness among visitors on the importance of marine ecosystem conservation.The Bahía de San Antonio Marine Protected Area (BSAMPA) is composed of a coastal wetland and a part of the marine ecosystem in the northwest of the San Matías gulf, in northern Patagonia. It was created in 1993 to protect critical habitats for marine and migratory bird species, invertebrates, fish, and marine mammals. Since 2012, WW activities on Southern Right Whale (SRW) Eubalaena australis have been taking place in a regulated manner and under a precautionary approach in this area. However, from a tourism and recreation perspective, it´s unknown whether the activity contributes to the conservation objectives of this Marine Protected Area (MPA). Does it generate significant experiences? Do visitors perceive the relationship between tourism-recreation and the conservation of the whales and its habitat?This work deals both with the relationship between visitors, SRW and the MPA. This knowledge represents an important contribution to management of this MPA and provides background to sightings of marine fauna in natural protected spaces. To this end, information on WW activity collected during 2018-2019 (individual self-administered semi-structured questionnaires and on-board participant observation) in this area were used. From a sample of 407 individuals surveyed, 68.6% declared no knowledge of the regulation established for carrying out sightings. In addition, 78.4% of visitors considered precautions necessary for carrying out tourist activities in nature, though almost half of these did not specify what type of precautions should be taken. Regarding personal experiences, 43.2% of participants weren´t able to express anything about what they had learned during the excursion, while a little over 50% of visitors said that the guides hadn´t informed them that they were in a MPA. As such, WW in the BSAMPA doesn´t yet take advantage of its position as a platform for either promoting and strengthening conservation actions in the area or for valuing other ecosystem services. This study provides critical information which could be used to improve management MPA´S actions through the WW activities. In this context, in a pursuit a paradigm shift in the WW tourism, the boat skippers or tourist guides must play key role providing information to visitors on main aspects of the whales and the MPA. Also, new data collection tools should be generated that contemplate i.e. the MPA´s conservation objectives, the WW´s regulations; environmental traits, biodiversity, visitor´s experience, among other issues.