Dear All, I am compiling information for a chapter on 'Pinniped Tourism in the Southern Hemisphere' that will come out in a book on 'Human marine mammal interactions in the Southern Hemisphere', a companion volume to the Southern Hemisphere marine mammal conference to be held on Phillip Island at the end of May. While some information is published on cetacean tourism, nothing is available on pinniped tourism in the Southern Hemisphere. Different species require different guidelines.
Guidelines vary from well regulated to open slather.
Tourists generally are unaware of how and where they can view seals, the variety of species etc. Fisheries that interact with seals often discount the economic value of seals to tourism. I view the chapter as providing a baseline of information, current trends, locations, the range of guidelines required. I'm hopefull of collating all the information, all the sites, but realise the difficulties of this in the short time I have. The important information is the following.