Stakeholder perspectives on sustainable whale watching: a science communication approach

Whale watching around the world has experienced explosive growth, driven largely by environmental marketing that presents it as a green alternative to whaling, leading to widespread questions of sustainability. The failure of sustainability is, in part, due to poor implementation of recommendations from scientific impact assessments, ineffective science communication about the negative impacts of whale watching on whale populations, and limited collaboration between whale watching operators, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that promote whale watching, and the scientists that measure the impacts of whale watching. To promote sustainable whale watching it is vital to have these critical stakeholders present a coherent and consistent message to the public on what constitutes sustainable whale watching. Here, we present the findings of research focus groups with Science, NGO and Industry stakeholders to distil relevant science communication and whale watching issues. Theoretically informed by the dominant models of science communication, we present the results of two expert focus groups (N = 19), and subsequent thematic analysis to emphasize stakeholder perspectives and collaborative science communication intervention strategies. The findings highlight the potential role of participatory approaches to science communication to increase multi-stakeholder collaboration and advance interests in sustainable whale watching.