What is it about?
A small group of whale sharks in a single Maldivian Atoll accounts for nearly 3% of the global shark ecotourism and nearly half that of the Maldives’. The South Ari atoll Marine Protected Area (S.A.MPA) alone attracted 77,000 tourists in 2013. This equates to $9.4million USD in direct income to operators.
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Why is it important?
Despite the South Ari Atoll Marine Protected Area (S.A.MPA) being the most popular whale shark viewing region in the Maldives, this area is as yet unregulated. This study highlights how the implementation of a management plan which safeguards this aggregation site would reduce the possible economic impact that would result from the sharks leaving the area due to stresses from the attention they receive.
Perspectives
When we include the whale sharks from South Ari Atoll, we were able to adjust previous estimates of annual ‘shark related’ tourism expenditure in the Maldives from $12 million USD to nearly $20 million. There are still many mysteries about these whale sharks - we don’t know why they come here or for how long they stay - but bringing the money issue to the table is an important step towards ensuring their conservation.
Edgar Fernando Cagua
University of Canterbury
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Whale shark economics: a valuation of wildlife tourism in South Ari Atoll, Maldives, PeerJ, August 2014, PeerJ,
DOI: 10.7717/peerj.515.
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