Each year, thousands of people set sail from Cape Ann aboard whale-watch tour boats with hopes of catching an up close glimpse of one of the planet’s largest mammals, but the long-term effects of such substantial whale watch exposure had been relatively unknown — until now.
New research published by scientists at the Gloucester-based Whale Center of New England suggests that heavy whale watch exposure is not having harmful effects on the calving intervals, or calf survival, of humpback whales in local waters.
The findings are published in a new issue of "Biological Conservation," a peer-reviewed research journal.
"What we wanted to do was to look at whether whale watching was impacting whales in the long run, not whether it was causing short-term disturbance," said Mason Weinrich, chief scientist at The Whale Center and senior author of the study. He noted that, while whale watching has become one of the busiest tourism industries, it is not heavily regulated.