A meeting called by the Marine Conservation Society Seychelles took a tentative first step towards finding a "Whale Shark Encounter Policy," last week at the NIE.

Drawing together representatives from dive companies, the Marine Parks Authority, the Ministries of Tourism and Transport and Environment and local NGOs as well as fishermen and members of the public, the meeting sought an effective policy to govern human interactions with Whale Sharks.

Speaking at the meeting the Marine Conservation Society's (MCSS), John Neville explained that the development of an effective encounter policy was designed to "allow the wise development of an eco-tourism activity based around the Whale Shark."

The Whale Shark was accorded official protected status in January this year and Mr Neville said that the MCSS policy is to adopt a precautionary approach to encounters, to guarantee that tourist activities do not impact too negatively on the species.

At present there has been little evidence of dive activities competing for and disturbing Whale Sharks, but the use of the sharks as a tourist attraction is expected to grow, necessitating the formulation of an effective policy.

The meeting heard a proposal that no more than eight snorkellers or divers be allowed to enter the water with a whale shark and that a vessel which sights a shark should be allowed to set up a temporary exclusion zone around it, to prevent other divers and boats from disturbing it.

Basing their recommendations on legislation currently in place in Australia the MCSS suggested an exclusion zone with a radius of 200 metres, but acknowledged that sighting conditions in Seychelles are very different to those in Australia, where Whale Sharks are seen some miles off shore.

Mr Neville said that once agreement on a draft encounter policy was reached amongst the various stakeholders, the proposal would be submitted to the Ministry of Environment, who would be asked to consider endorsing it.

Mr Neville stressed that the workshop was a first step towards achieving legislation to govern human activity in relation to Whale Sharks, and acknowledged that the need to achieve a consensus between the stakeholders would make it difficult to place a definite time table on the project.

LINKS