Friendly or dangerous waters? Understanding dolphin swim tourism encounters

Abstract

An upsurge in dolphin tourism has occurred over the past thirty years, including a steady increase of operations focused on swim activities. Apprehension over the rise in dolphin swim tourism on a global scale has led to few studies examining the social impacts of this activity. Contemporary issues pertaining to dolphin swim tourism will be discussed by using existing literature to present an overview of dolphin swim experiences, and review and contrast the differences in human-dolphin exchanges. Prior literature reviews on swim with dolphin research have been completed (Samuels and Spradlin 1995, Scheer 2010); however, they fail to include work on human perceptions of these experiences, and do not focus on the social implications of human-dolphin connections. This paper will update the literature including some of the research from the past ten years emphasizing tourist perceptions of dolphin swim activities.

Keywords:

• dolphin
• marine tourism
• swim-with
• tourist perceptions
• gaze

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my committee members Dr Paul Wilkinson, Dr Leesa Fawcett, Dr William Found, and Dr David Johnston for their continued support and efforts towards my research. Special thanks to Shelley Wiener and Elia Herman for their helpful suggestions on this manuscript. Funding for this research has been provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canada, York University, and Dolphin Quest. I would also like to acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and helpful feedback.