Scientific Literature: Searchable Database

Whale watching has boomed as a global tourist industry over the last three decades, bringing with it considerable economic gains to the local communities in which it operates, many of which are in less developed economies. However, it has also brought considerable biological harm to the cetacean populations exposed, which has led the International Whaling Commission to advocate for greater enforcement of established guidelines regulating the behaviour of operators. In this paper, a two-stage static common agency model is developed to assess the likely effectiveness of both heightened external enforcement and the alternative course of action of utilising whale-watching tourists as internal enforcers of established regulatory guidelines. The outcome strongly favours the alternative as being the most effective course of action.