Scuba Diving Tourism with Critically Endangered Grey Nurse Sharks
Tourism Management 45 (2014) 211e225 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Tourism Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tourman Scuba diving tourism with critically endangered grey nurse sharks (Carcharias taurus) off eastern Australia: Tourist demographics, shark behaviour and diver compliance K.R. Smith a,*, C. Scarpaci a,2, M.J. Scarr a,3, N.M. Otway b,1 a School of Engineering and Science, Victoria University, PO Box 14428, Melbourne, Victoria 8001, Australia b Port Stephens Fisheries Institute, New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Locked Bag 1, Nelson Bay, New South Wales 2315, Australia highlights Key grey nurse shark life-history stages were sampled at four tourism sites. Most tourists were recreational divers with prior grey nurse shark experience. Milling was the most frequent shark swimming behaviour observed. No significant changes to shark behaviour occurred during divereshark interactions. Tourists exhibited 100% compliance with all of the scuba diving guidelines. article info abstract Article history: Guidelines and a national code of conduct were implemented to manage scuba diving tourism with the Received 24 April 2013 critically endangered grey nurse shark (Carcharias taurus) along the Australian east coast. The de- Accepted 2 May 2014 mographics of diving tourists, swimming behaviour of grey nurse sharks at various life-history stages and Available online 25 May 2014 compliance of divers to the guidelines/code of conduct were simultaneously assessed during divereshark interactions at four sites from March 2011 to February 2012. Milling was the most frequent swimming Keywords: behaviour observed and no significant changes occurred with the number of divers or distance to sharks.
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