Scientific Literature: Searchable Database

An upsurge in dolphin tourism has occurred over the past thirty years, including a steady increase of operations focused on swim activities. Apprehension over the rise in dolphin swim tourism on a global scale has led to few studies examining the social impacts of this activity. Contemporary issues pertaining to dolphin swim tourism will be discussed by using existing literature to present an overview of dolphin swim experiences, and review and contrast the differences in humandolphin exchanges. Prior literature reviews on swim with dolphin research have been completed (Samuels and Spradlin 1995, Scheer 2010); however, they fail to include work on human perceptions of these experiences, and do not focus on the social implications of human-dolphin connections. This paper will update the literature including some of the research from the past ten years emphasizing tourist perceptions of dolphin swim activities.