Commercial whale-watching reduces vessel incidents in the vicinity of killer whales in Washington State

With some questions about whale-watching on our recent posts, it seemed timely to highlight a paper we published in 2022: "Commercial whale-watching reduces vessel incidents in the vicinity of killer whales in Washington State.

"In that study, we evaluated speed and distance infractions in the vicinity of Southern Resident and Bigg's killer whales while simultaneously monitoring the presence of commercial whale-watching, private recreational, education or enforcement boats, and research vessels. Our primary question was to see if the presence of one vessel type influenced the behavior of any of the others.

The key finding was that in the presence of whale-watching vessels, regulation violations by private vessels were cut in half. This "sentinel effect" results from  professional operators modeling proper viewing protocols and actively flagging down private vessels unaware of the presence of whales. No similar effect was noted in the presence of education or enforcement vessels, which were much more rarely on scene.

These data corroborated what we've witnessed for many years on the west side of San Juan Island: in the absence of commercial whale watchers, private boats on the water to fish, sight see, or transit are far more likely to drive at speed in close proximity to whales. This is just one of many reasons we support responsible, ethically conducted whale-watching and recommend the licensed Pacific Whale Watch Association operators in our area.

The study was designed with input from management agencies and without the knowledge of the whale-watch industry, was conducted without funding, and was published in the highly regarded peer-reveiwed journal Marine Policy. It's available open access, so you can read it in full.