Introduction

The Dwarf Minke Whale Tourism Monitoring Program is a partnership between the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the researchers conducting the Minke Whale Project and the tourism industry.

This six-year monitoring program into the sustainability of the swimming-with-whales activity began in 2003, making it the world’s first fully permitted swimming-with-whales industry.

The Dwarf Minke Whale Tourism Monitoring Program analyses and evaluates whale sighting sheets supplied by permitted tourism operators conducting swimming-with-whales activities. The Program provides results to the tourism industry and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, ensuring appropriate management of the whale-swimmer interactions. A code of practice based on emerging research and tourism operator observations was jointly developed and implemented by skippers and crew on dive boats undertaking the activity. As part of the permit conditions, permitted operators are now required to abide by this code of practice. Pre and post-season workshops involving managers, permitted tourism operators and researchers ensure management of this activity is regularly evaluated.

The voluntary approach to vessels and swimmers by the whales creates a unique opportunity for managers, the permitted tourism operators and researchers to observe these wild animals and poses particular challenges for management of the encounters. The ongoing monitoring, management and cooperation of the industry is vital in ensuring the activity is carried out to world’s best practice. 

The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and the International Fund for Animal Welfare have recently become involved with the Minke Whale Project.

Background

During the 1980s, tourism operators, private boat owners and researchers working in the offshore waters of the northern Great Barrier Reef began reporting their observations of in-water encounters between swimmers, divers and inquisitive dwarf minke whales. A fledgling tourism experience based on whale watching and swimming with the whales started. The nine permitted day-boat and live-aboard dive vessels experience close and often prolonged encounters with the whales while snorkelling and SCUBA diving.

The dwarf minke whale, an undescribed subspecies of Balaenoptera acutorostrata, is a little-known whale first recognised during the 1980s. The behaviour, biology and ecology of the whale remains poorly understood and are the subject of increasing research interest. In the 1990s, researchers, in close collaboration with tourism operators visiting key sites, began detailed studies on the biology and ecology of dwarf minke whales and on the dynamics of the interactions between the whales and divers.

All permitted operators allow researchers free passage throughout the swimming-with-minke season, typically mid-June to mid-August, and complete comprehensive information sheets including a vessel movement log, minke whale questionnaire and an encounter log book.  

Tourism Operators Permitted to Offer Swimming with Dwarf Minke Whale Activities

In 2003, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority granted nine permits for the swimming-with-whales activity in the Ribbon Reefs Sector and Offshore Port Douglas Sector of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

The current permitted operators are:

• Aristocat
• Floreat Reef Charter
• Mike Ball Dive Expeditions
• Nimrod Explorer
• Poseidon Cruises
• Silverseries
• Eye to Eye Marine Encounters
• Taka Dive
• Undersea Explorer

Further Information on Dwarf Minke Whales

• Minke whale research
• Towards sustainable management of the developing dwarf minke whale tourism industry in northern Queensland
• Ecologically sustainable dwarf minke whale tourism
• Code of practice for dwarf minke whale interactions in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area [Adobe Acrobat 288KB]
  

Relevant Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Publications

• Operational Policy on Whale and Dolphin Conservation in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
• Incident report form
• Watch out for Whales Information Sheet [Adobe Acrobat 296KB]
  

For Further Information

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority

Species Conservation Unit
Email: species@gbrmpa.gov.au

Tourism and Recreation Group
Email: tourrec@gbrmpa.gov.au

Minke Whale Project
Email: matthew.curnock@jcu.edu.au