fertnet.blogg.se

Ecotourism in the marine realm, focused on large marine species (megafauna), can, if properly managed, potentially offer one solution that provides long-term, sustainable benefits for both the people and animals involved. One such non-consumptive option is ecotourism, which can be defined as “non-consumptive travel with minimal negative impact that results in increased conservation and sustainability of natural and sociocultural resources and contributes to the well-being of local people”.

Accordingly, interest in exploring the benefits of marine recreational activities as non-consumptive uses of marine resources has grown considerably in recent years –. While some conservation biologists assert that the intrinsic value of nature should provide sufficient ethical justification for its conservation, ,, environmental policy decision makers are nevertheless challenged with balancing the needs of numerous stakeholders amid increasing competition for the use of valuable and diminishing natural resources. In many of the areas where directed fisheries for manta rays are known to occur, these activities overlap with manta ray tourism sites or the migratory range of the mantas on which these sites depend, and are likely to be unsustainable and detrimental to manta ray watching tourism. Ten countries account for almost 93% of the global revenue estimate, specifically Japan, Indonesia, the Maldives, Mozambique, Thailand, Australia, Mexico, United States, Federated States of Micronesia and Palau. In the 23 countries in which manta ray watching operations meeting our criteria were identified, we estimated direct revenue to dive operators from manta ray dives and snorkels at over US$73 million annually and direct economic impact, including associated tourism expenditures, of US$140 million annually. Utilising dive operator surveys, Internet research, and a literature review, this study provides the first global estimate of the direct economic impact of manta ray watching tourism and examines the potential socio-economic benefits of non-consumptive manta ray watching operations relative to consumptive use of manta rays as a fishery resource. Both species in the genus Manta (Manta alfredi and Manta birostris) are classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List as species Vulnerable to extinction in the wild, and are considered unsustainable as fisheries resources due to their conservative life history characteristics, which considerably reduce their ability to recover population numbers when depleted. As manta rays face increased threats from targeted and bycatch fisheries, manta ray watching tourism, if managed properly, may present an attractive economic alternative to consumptive use of these species.