Whale-watching safe for whales
Photo: Jim Smart
Whale-watching activities are unlikely to have any long-term negative effect on the life expectancy of minke whales.
This is the conclusion of a study conducted by Marianne H. Rasmussen, Director of the University of Iceland's Research Centre in Húsavík. An article about the study was recently published in The Journal of Wildlife Management.
The study analysed the behaviour of minke whales in Faxaflói in south-west Iceland in the summers of 2008-13. The whales were monitored from the Garðskagi lighthouse at the very tip of the Reykanes peninsula using theodolites and telescopes. Whale-watching vessels were also used to take pictures of the whales to estimate how far away from the boats they were.
