Whale watching (Pelagos)
Kevin Flückiger, Ana Stritih (ETH Zürich)
The Pelagos Sanctuary is a marine protected area (MPA) in the Mediterranean Sea aimed to protect all marine mammals. Due to a combination of climatic, oceanographic and physiographic factors, the area has good conditions for the feeding and breeding habitat of several whale and dolphin species (Notarbartolo di Sciara and Reeves 2006). At the same time, it is surrounded by well-developed regions with high economic activity. For tourists and locals, whale watching has become an increasingly popular activity, and is therefore an important cultural ecosystem service in the MPA. However, cetaceans in the area are threatened by pollution, ship strikes, and noise. Disturbance due to whale watching is also thought to be harmful to whales, but data on the activity and its impacts are scarce. A BN was developed to map the value of whale watching by combining data on cetaceans with expert knowledge on whale watching activities in the Pelagos Sanctuary.
For details on the case study, see Section 6.6 in ECOPOTENTIAL Deliverable 7.3