Down Time

As the whale watching season comes to an end, there are many things I want to talk about. Some are meaningful, others, not so much… I´ll be putting it down to “paper” in weekly instalments, I promise.

But the first one is about something that has been eating at me… Dolphin Snorkeling…

“Why did you stop?” “What did you see?” “Did you see behaviour changes?” “Don´t the dolphins love people?” “They seem to like when are around them…” “I did it and they loved seeing me!”

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin - Stenella frontalis

These are some of the comments, questions and insights I have gotten since we stopped this activity, late 2019. Well, there are a few aspects in need of attention.

Yes, I have seen behaviour changes. But this is a personal view, there is no meaningful scientific study on this, sadly.

My conclusion is that people, as much as they love Nature, feel they are entitled to the experience because THEY have the right motivation, THEY deserve it because THEY have their hearts in the right place, because it´s OTHERS that create harm and stress. I need to address this entitlement by calling it out, pointing out the hypocrisy. Internally, we have a lot of conversations about our impact on Nature and specially whales and dolphins´ lives, and sometimes, we have heated exchanges. Why? Maybe because we care about the animals. Maybe because we care about the participants. Maybe because we are not business driven. As you can conclude, I am full of doubts.

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin - Stenella frontalis

Bottom line is, I will try to stay true to my beliefs and true to my instinct, right or wrong.

Full disclosure: some, not many, will still be able to participate in this activity, with us. They have been coming out with us for many years and do not demand the activity goes ahead.

As time goes by, I feel more confident this was the right call, and I will not judge any colleague that keeps doing it.

But it is up to the participants to decide if it´s a good or a bad thing.

Maybe the next entry will be a little more interesting than this one.

Take care!

Peace…

Pedro

Comments

  1. Dunc14 November 2020 at 10:07

    Great entry Pedro. You say it very well by talking about the entitlement factor. I see it here. Certain operators behave in this way - they believe they are entitled to chase down dolphins because their passengers are entitled to see them. They have no regard for the animals. They have no empathy for the subtle changes in behaviour. Each year around the coast here in Cornwall I see more and more boats rushing around offering 'wildlife' 'dolphin' trips. We have no enforced regulations so the impact on the animals always comes down to the moral integrity of the skipper.

    I applaud your decision and it is a clear reflection of your moral integrity. There seem to be very few operators in our business who are doing it for the right reasons. Your decision marks you out as one of the good guys.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Whale Warlock16 November 2020 at 11:06

      Hey Duncan! Many thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it! ;)

      Delete

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