Scientific Literature: Searchable Database

A literature review was performed to evaluate the contribution of whale-watching based programs to the presnt scientific understanding of cetacean populations. Peer-reviewed publications were identified through systematic bibliographic searches of English-language journals, information gatehred from gray literature and word-of-mouth. The review as lmited to studies in which data collection was incidental to commercial whale watching activities. Reserach ecotourism, in which paying passengers or volunteers asssisted in secientifially directed cruises (e.g. earthwatch) was not included. 62 refereed publications were based largely or entirely on commercial whalewatching data. Although humbapck whales were best presresented, a total of 7 mysticete and five odontocete species were studied. Publications addressed a wide range of topics, including: ditribution, stock identity, reproductive parameters, abundance, popualtion composition, migratory destinations, behaivour and human-related impacts. This review confirmed that, when carefully applied, data from whale watching platforms ahve been a valuable resource to the scientific community. However, onyl six countries were represented in teh peer-reviewed literature, and one region, the Gulf of Maine, was th focus of hte majority of the published work. Thus, despite the high reported use of commercial platforms for reserach, the average published scientific contribtuion of whalewatching data remains low.