Estimating the energetic cost of whale shark tourism

• DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110164
• Publication Date: 2023-06-27T11:11:30Z
• Authors: Christine Barry; Christine Legaspi; Thomas M. Clarke; Gonzalo Araujo; Corey J.A. Bradshaw; Adrian C. Gleiss; Lauren Meyer; Charlie Huveneers
• Keywords: Minke whale; Escapement; Bioenergetics; Bycatch; Wildlife tourism

Wildlife tourism is one of the fastest-growing sectors industry, where feeding animals often applied to increase probability up-close encounters. However, directly wildlife can cause behavioural, ecological, and physiological changes in target species. In Oslob, Philippines, whale shark (Rhincodon typus) involves sharks a total 150–400 kg sergestid shrimp daily throughout interaction period from 06:00 10:00 small outrigger boats while tourists observe sharks. We deployed tri-axial acceleration loggers on 16 recorded 270 h acceleration, depth, water temperature data (0.2–69.7 h). Comparing activity across non-tourism periods, had two-fold vectorial dynamic body altered tailbeat frequency amplitude, during operations. Using bioenergetics model, we show that metabolic rates increased by 56.7–71.6 % area. A resampling approach found providing ∼220 would ensure ≥ 0.90 meeting energetic requirements. global sensitivity analysis revealed uncertainty assumed exponent standard rate was only input varied model predictions substantially. Due unknown consequences sharks, recommend managers aim reduce energy expenditure through operation instead focussing quantity food provided. Our research provides novel method contextualise impacts beyond behavioural changes.