Managers have few routes to minimise impacts or maximise benefits to whales.
Demonstrating that changes in behaviour are linked to conservation needs is extremely difficult. However, the inclusion of an educational message in the interpretation component of the whale watching experience provides one possibility to maximise benefits. If whale-watching is to continue, albeit within a context which may be harmful to the animals, then some positive result must come from it. The primary benefit of whale-watching, and the measuring stick of its success, has been primarily focussed on its popularity and consequent monetary gains. Yet whale-watching is marketed as ecotourism.