Me getting in position to photo ID a whale shark

June 13, 2011

MY BRILLIANT FALL INTERNSHIP/SENIOR THESIS IDEA

I had a very helpful conversation with Danny in the International Office when going over the logistics of my internship in the Seychelles Islands this fall that spurred a wonderful idea for my senior thesis! My advisor for my UVU Biology internship wanted me to focus on the whale shark field research and not the ecotourism aspect since I would be getting Biology credit for it, but for my senior thesis I still wanted to tie in an ecotourism bit of whale sharks. I think I've found a way to do both...

Among my research I came across a case study of whale shark ecotourism and its socio-economic impact in the Seychelles Islands co-written by the director of the Marine Conservation Society Seychelles (MCSS, aka the man in charge of the NGO I'm doing my internship with), published in 2007. My brilliant idea would be to revisiting that case study and perhaps try to get it published and possibly even see if David Rowat would be willing to co-author the new case study with me? The purpose would be to see where things stand about 5 years after the initial case study. Instead of just reporting back the field research conducted I could take the whale shark monitoring data a step further and include it in a case study of how the whale shark ecotourism industry in the Seychelles has been progressing (or possibly failing) since 2007.

I'm very excited for this idea because it encompasses my 2 interests of whale shark field research and ecotourism and I'll have case study research guidelines to follow. By calling this a "case study" I can follow case study research methods, know the strengths and limitations of what that entails so I have realistic expectations for an end result, and I have the previous case study to use as a stepping off place AND I'll be in regular contact with one of the authors of that case study for input or insight. Is this a great idea or what!!!

I've taken a look at the original case study and found 12 things I could look into and/or revisit for my follow up case study:

1. Revisit stakeholder's list (Is it bigger, smaller, same? Still primarily consists of dive operators or are more boat charters, glass bottom boats, and taxi boats involved?)
2. Effectiveness of quarterly newsletter (Is the purpose still to involve more community members in WS monitoring activities? Has the audience grown in size of numbers and size of area the info is being sent to? Quality of data being distributed? Is it more or less effective than the national public workshops approach?)
3. Revisit how the original need of a "nationwide network for reporting sightings" and a "cross-network feedback" of WS monitoring has been met (Are newsletters and national public workshops the only way to meet those needs? Or the most effect way? What about an email list, blog, or website to report to and reference WS sightings?)
4. Revisit original outreach questionnaire to stake holders (Gauge before and now: what they knew about WS and their occurrence, any direct interactions with WS, what characterized their interaction, and were WS sightings by chance?)
5. Revisit analysis of the potential WS ecotourism has in Seychelles (Originally based on questionnaire to visiting tourists. Asked how much tourists would be willing to pay for WS activities. Data analyzed using Contingent Valuation Method)
6. How many tourists scuba dive and snorkel?
7. Revisit projected value and direct earning to WS program (Originally done by realistically looking at Seychelles infrastructure to support WS tours, the timeframe of WS occurrences during peak season, fluctuations in weather, and the limitations of 1 spotter aircraft. 1 ecotourism operation running 4 trips/week could have 560 clients total in 1 season. Use 560 clients + actual revenue figures of average length of tourism reports + average daily expenditure from current tourism reports...... estimate using Travel Cost method = projected value and direct earnings to WS program)
8. Collect new data of tourists during WS encounter boat tours (Originally MCSS researchers on board collected info like: number of people in water, encounter duration, and causes of encounter termination. New info could include WS behavior changes when people and boats are around. Is there a need to revisit the Seychelles WS encounter policy or other management or policy changes? How many tourists actually follow the WS encounter policy?)
9. Is the most limiting and costly factor of WS ecotourism in Seychelles still finding WS? (Done only by 1 microlight spotter plane. This limits the number of operations it can support. How much would revenue increase if another spotter plane was utilized? Does doubling the number of spotter planes and therefore increasing the number of boat operators in a given day significantly increase environmental degradation and put a stress of the WS themselves?)
10. Effectiveness of daily emails to stakeholders with flight's WS aerial sightings (This provides immediate feedback to boat operators within range so they can go out. Do other operators go out even when they are "out of range". What does "within range" mean?)
11. Benefits (in terms of revenue and quality of scientific research) of having MCSS researchers on board WS tours (Boat operators can have microlight aircraft and knowledgable WS researchers on board. Is there a measurable difference in the amount of money earned when researchers are on board compared to when not on board? Is there a measurable different in the amount or quality of "citizen science" research collected by the tourists themselves when scientists are on board [such as photo ID pictures taken of WS]?)
12. Are WS sightings increasing or decreasing since 2007?

Something this study did not touch on is the toll WS ecotourism takes on the animals themselves and the Seychellois environmental. I would not know where to begin or how to study that, but it might be worth speculating about at the end of the case study. I also realize that things like "benefits" and "effectiveness" can not always be defined quantifiably which makes certain aspects of my case study difficult to prove. Those 12 items are the things I could look into to do a follow up case study on whale shark ecotourism in the Seychelles Islands. I wanted to get everyone's feedback and approval before I approached the director of the MCSS with this follow up case study idea. And of course I would get his feedback on what projects he was already working on for this type of topic or what he would like to see studied.