Swimming with humans: biotelemetry reveals effects of “gold standard” regulated tourism on whale sharks
利用生物遥测技术研究澳大利亚宁加洛礁的规范旅游对鲸鲨活动水平的影响，发现旅游使大型鲸鲨活动增加18%，但仅占其日常能量需求的4%，表明生物遥测能揭示观察研究无法发现的细微影响。
Wildlife tourism can benefit conservation of target species, however, it can have detrimental effects on animal behaviour and physiology. Whale shark Rhincodon typus tourism has seen recent rapid growth globally, but methods and regulations vary widely. Ningaloo Reef, Australia is considered “gold standard” whale shark tourism management due to legal regulation, strict enforcement, and high compliance. Rather than relying on observational data, we used biotelemetry to collect high-resolution data (20 Hz) on whale sharks’ movement behaviour in the presence or absence of tourists. Tourism encounters lasted an average of 62 min and swimming with tourists increased the activity levels of larger (> 7 m) but not smaller sharks. Given that activity levels positively correlate with energetic costs, it is likely the 18% increase seen in activity of large sharks would have incurred additional energetic costs. However, when considered as a proportion of daily energy requirements, these additional costs were only incurred for an average of 4% of a whale shark’s day. The tourism-induced impacts we found on the endangered whale sharks at this highly regulated tourism site would not have been apparent from purely observational studies, highlighting the utility of biotelemetry to quantify tourism-related impacts on wildlife.