An authoritative examination to yield guidelines, ideas and methods for enhancing the education practiced on whale watches was undertaken by a Workshop on the Educational Values of Whale Watching organised by The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). Information from this Workshop is meant to be shared, further developed and adapted to assure humane, responsible and meaningful whale watching everywhere the activity is undertaken.
The Workshop therefore was designed to play a significant role in the development of whale watching as a benign "sustainable use" of cetaceans. To establish the parameters to be discussed, a Steering Committee was appointed by IFAW, consisting of Phoebe Wray (Chair), Carole Carlson, Michael Williamson and Hanne Strager. This small group developed the agenda and the list of participants. Experts and those directly involved in education and public information about whale watching were invited to prepare short briefing papers (listed in Appendix C) prior to the Workshop. The report from this meeting is meant to be of value to a broad range of disciplines, including government officials, tour operators and guides, scientists, teachers, Non-Governmental Organisations (NG0s), naturalists, marine policy makers, and national, international and inter-governmental organisations.
Education is here viewed in a broad context: not just what is taught/learned in an informal way aboard whale watching vessels, but how whale watching can be used in a formal educational setting, how ecotourism planners and operators can educate themselves as well as their clients, and how the whales can (once again) be the flagship species to teach a wider environmental awareness.
Whale watching is a kind of safari, and, like a safari, it has a sense of adventure about it because the whole reason for the activity is to observe a wild animal in its own habitat. In educational terms, this is wonderful. People expecting an adventure have a heightened awareness, a light heart, an anticipation of pleasure and thrill. Such audiences can be excellent students.
This Workshop on Educational Values was the third in a series of five Workshops on whale watching activities to be sponsored and organised by The International Fund for Animal Welfare. The first considered the scientific aspects of managing whale watching, the second focused on the special problems of sperm whale watching, the fourth will encompass the economic aspects and the fifth, the legal ramifications.
Back
to Cetaceans's Ecological Legislation
Back to the
Whale-Watching-Web
International
Fund For Animal Welfare, IFAW