Growth Trends in Vessel-Based Killer Whale Watching in Haro Strait along the Boundary of British Columbia and Washington State

Richard W. Osborne¹,² and Robert E. Otis¹,³
¹ The Whale Museum, P.O. Box 945, Friday Harbor, WA 98250, USA; 360-378-4710; whale@rockisland.com.
² Department of Geography, University of Victoria, Victoria, B.C., Canada.
³ Department of Psychology, Rippon College, Rippon, WI, USA.

Killer whale watching in Haro Strait along the border of Washington State and British Columbia is currently a multi-million dollar industry . Prior to 1976 whale watching in this region was non-existent, then from 1985 through 1996 it exhibited nearly continuous annual growth in the mean number of commerical and private boats accompanying the whales. Data was collected through questionnaires distributed to commercial operators in 1988, 1991 and 1993, and through systematic empirical observations collected by shore-observers since 1990, and from educational patrol boats since 1993. After 1996 vessel-based whale watching leveled-off and started to exhibit a small annual decline. However, despite this recent decline, Haro Strait presently ranks as one of the highest density vessel-based whale watching areas found anywhere in the world.

The retail sale of orca watching in this region began in the late 1970s, but did not gross over $10,000 in estimated ticket sales annually until 1985. By 1991 ticket sales broke $1 million and by the end of the 1996 season they approached $5.7 million, with 81 commercial boats from both sides of the border carrying over 113,000 passengers. The mainstay of this industry is a declining population of killer whales known as the "Southern Residents", who were listed as "threatened" in Canada (COSEWIC) in 1999, and are currently being considered for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The findings presented here indicate that potential impacts on this population from vessel-based whale watching peaked in 1996, and have declined by as much as 30% over the last four years.