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Valuing Whales for National Whale Day. 4 Executive Summary on the Eve of National Whale Day 2011, This Report Demonstrates the Value That Whales Have to Australia

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Valuing Whales for National Whale Day. 4 Executive Summary on the Eve of National Whale Day 2011, This Report Demonstrates the Value That Whales Have to Australia © Elding Whale Watch/IFAW Contents Executive summary ............................................................................................................ 5 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 7 Background ............................................................................................................................................ 7 Commercial whaling .......................................................................................................................... 7 Whale watching tourism in Australia ................................................................................................ 8 Communities selected for this study .................................................................................................. 8 Humpback whales in Australia .......................................................................................................... 8 Southern right whales in Australia ..................................................................................................... 9 Threats to whale populations .......................................................................................................... 10 Methodology ................................................................................................................... 11 Valuing Wildlife and Individual Animals .............................................................................................. 11 Methodology and terminology in this report ...................................................................................... 11 Total expenditure value per whale .................................................................................................. 12 Present value per whale ................................................................................................................... 13 Summary of terms and definitions in this report: ............................................................................ 14 Hervey Bay ...................................................................................................................... 16 Species ................................................................................................................................................. 16 Population ........................................................................................................................................... 16 Eastern Australian Humpback population ....................................................................................... 16 Humpbacks visiting Hervey Bay ....................................................................................................... 16 Whale watching tourism ...................................................................................................................... 17 What’s a whale worth to Hervey Bay? ................................................................................................ 18 Expenditure directly attributable to whales ........................................................................................ 19 Warrnambool .................................................................................................................. 21 Species ................................................................................................................................................. 21 Population ........................................................................................................................................... 21 Global and Australian population .................................................................................................... 21 Whales visiting Logan’s Beach ......................................................................................................... 21 Whale watching tourism ...................................................................................................................... 22 What’s a whale worth to Warrnambool? ............................................................................................ 23 Broome ........................................................................................................................... 25 Species ................................................................................................................................................. 25 Population ........................................................................................................................................... 25 Western Australian humpback population ...................................................................................... 25 Whales between Broome and Camden Sound ................................................................................. 25 Whales between Broome and Eco Beach ......................................................................................... 25 Whale watching tourism ...................................................................................................................... 25 What’s a whale worth to Broome? ...................................................................................................... 26 Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 27 Comparison with other studies ........................................................................................................ 29 2 Replacement value .......................................................................................................................... 30 Conclusions ..................................................................................................................... 31 References ....................................................................................................................... 32 Charts Figure 1: Historical passenger numbers to Hervey Bay 17 Tables Table 1: Summary of results 27 Table 2: Summary of shark diving valuation studies 29 Table 3: Replacement value of individual animals 30 3 Report prepared by: Economists at Large Pty Ltd Melbourne, Australia www.ecolarge.com [email protected] Phone: +61 3 9005 0154 | Fax: +61 3 8080 1604 98 Gertrude St, Fitzroy VIC 3065, Melbourne, Australia Citation: Knowles, T., Campbell, R., 2011. What’s a whale worth? Valuing whales for National Whale Day, a report for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), prepared by Economists at Large, Melbourne, Australia. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the organisations involved. This report is distributed with the understanding that the authors are not responsible for the results of any actions undertaken on the basis of the information that is contained within, nor for any omission from, or error in, this publication. AcKnowledgements: We would like to thank all the operators, tourism bureaus, government departments, non- government organisations, researchers and individuals who assisted us with this research. Without the generous contributions and cooperation of the many stakeholders involved, this report would not have been possible. In particular, we would like to thank the people who kindly reviewed this work at short notice: Charles Anderson, Curt Jenner, Mandy Watson, Wally Franklin, Mark Meekan, Gabriel Vianna and James Catlin. Any errors, however, remain the responsibility of the authors alone. What’s a whale worth? Valuing whales for National Whale Day. 4 Executive summary On the eve of National Whale Day 2011, this report demonstrates the value that whales have to Australia. This report uses tourism revenue data from earlier IFAW reports and estimates of local whale populations to estimate tourism values per whale, providing a quantifiable answer to the question “What is a whale worth?”. Humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) and southern right (Eubalaena australis) whales are important species for whale watching in Australia and are the focus of the case studies in this report. Populations of humpbacks migrate up the east and west coasts, while southern rights migrate mainly to the south coast. Each distinct population of both species has been recovering since being seriously depleted by commercial whaling last century, but still face significant challenges. Australia has a well-established commercial whale watching industry, with operations in every state. While a wide range of species is sighted, humpback whales are the focus of whale watching on the west and east coasts, while southern right whales are the focus along the southern coast. Over 1.6 million people went whale watching in Australia in 2008, generating AUD $47 million in ticket expenditure and AUD $264 million in total tourism expenditure. This represents an increase in direct expenditure of nearly 600%. Year Direct expenditure (AUD millions) Total expenditure (AUD millions) 1991 $6.8 $71.2 1994 $8.9 $85.7 2000 $19.9 $98.6 2003 $34.2 $321 2008 $47.1 $264.3 Assigning a value to natural resources is complex and involves many assumptions, beginning with the acknowledgement of the limitations of the approach – that we are choosing to exclude a range of tangible and intangible values that whales have both for humans and for the wider ecosystem. We have calculated total tourism revenue related to whale watching in three locations and
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