Bridging information gaps: A rapid assessment of cetacean watching tourism in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Cetacean watching tourism is growing in popularity worldwide. Although previous studies have reported ecological and physical impacts arising from the cetacean watching industry knowledge is still limited especially on long-term impacts. This holds particularly true for developing countries in Asia where the rapid growth of the industry is not met with similar scientific efforts to assess impacts. To address this issue Mustika et al. (2017) used the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) indicator assessment framework as a quick evaluation of the scientific, policy and management aspects of the risks associated with the cetacean watching tourism in six Asian countries. However their assessment did not include Sri Lanka because the cetacean watching industry there is mainly focused on dolphin watching, which is a gap that we fill here. Our study revealed that Sri Lanka is at a medium risk level compared with the other six Asian countries that have previously been assessed. We present the details of this assessment and caution that it is critical to monitor the development in Sri Lanka to ensure the long-term sustainability of the cetacean watching industry.