A rapid assessment of wildlife tourism risk posed to cetaceans in Asia

Abstract

Putu Liza Kusuma Mustikaabc*, Riccardo Weltersd, Gerard Edward Ryane, Coralie D'Limaa, Patricia Sorongon-Yapf, Suwat Jutapruetg & Cindy Peterha Environmental Management Academic Group, College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Australiab Tourism Academic Group, College of Business, Law and Governance, James Cook University, Townsville, Australiac Cetacean Sirenian Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesiad Economics and Marketing Academic Group, College of Business, Law and Governance, James Cook University, Townsville, Australiae Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australiaf SeaLifeBase, FishBase Information and Research Group Inc., Los Baños, Laguna, The Philippinesg Department of Fishery Resources, Faculty of Science and Industrial Technology, Prince of Songkla University, Surat Thani, Thailandh Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Sarawak, MalaysiaPutu Liza Kusuma Mustika is a postdoctoral adjunct researcher at the James Cook University, North Queensland, Australia, and the director of the NGO Cetacean Sirenian, Indonesia. Her main research interests are marine mammal tourism and general marine tourism, protected areas for marine mammals, the management of marine mammal stranding events, and marine mammal by catch.Riccardo Welters is an associate professor at James Cook University, Australia. His main research interests are labour market economics and social disadvantage. He is a fellow at the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (University of Maastricht, the Netherlands) and at the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (University of Newcastle, Australia).Gerard Ryan is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, Australia. A conservation scientist and naturalist, he is fascinated by wildlife demography, river dolphin biology, risk assessment and management effectiveness evaluation.Coralie D'Lima is a postdoctoral research affiliate at James Cook University, Australia, and a consulting data analyst for WorldFish. She is an interdisciplinary scientist, and her research interests include sustainable natural resource management and species conservation in coastal social ecological systems.Patricia Sorongon-Yap is a research analyst from SeaLifeBase, a global database on non-fish marine organisms of the world, under the FishBase Information and Research Group, Inc. (FIN). Her main research interests are marine mammal tourism and the behaviours and threats to marine mammals in the Philippines.Suwat Jutapruet is a lecturer at the Prince of Songkla University, Surat Thani Campus, Thailand. His research addresses effect of human activities (tourism in particular) on marine mammals in the Gulf of Thailand.Cindy Peter is a research officer at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) and the main coordinator of Sarawak Dolphin Project. Her research interest lies in the ecology of coastal cetaceans and impacts of human activities on the marine ecosystem.