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The Global Economic Impact of Manta Ray Watching Tourism
As manta rays face increased threats from targeted and bycatch fisheries, manta ray watching tourism, if managed properly, may present an attractive economic alternative to consumptive use of these species. Both species in the genus Manta (Manta alfredi and Manta birostris) are classified by the Int...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2013
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3669133/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23741450 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065051 |
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author | O’Malley, Mary P. Lee-Brooks, Katie Medd, Hannah B. |
author_facet | O’Malley, Mary P. Lee-Brooks, Katie Medd, Hannah B. |
author_sort | O’Malley, Mary P. |
collection | PubMed |
description | As manta rays face increased threats from targeted and bycatch fisheries, manta ray watching tourism, if managed properly, may present an attractive economic alternative to consumptive use of these species. Both species in the genus Manta (Manta alfredi and Manta birostris) are classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List as species Vulnerable to extinction in the wild, and are considered unsustainable as fisheries resources due to their conservative life history characteristics, which considerably reduce their ability to recover population numbers when depleted. Utilising dive operator surveys, Internet research, and a literature review, this study provides the first global estimate of the direct economic impact of manta ray watching tourism and examines the potential socio-economic benefits of non-consumptive manta ray watching operations relative to consumptive use of manta rays as a fishery resource. In the 23 countries in which manta ray watching operations meeting our criteria were identified, we estimated direct revenue to dive operators from manta ray dives and snorkels at over US$73 million annually and direct economic impact, including associated tourism expenditures, of US$140 million annually. Ten countries account for almost 93% of the global revenue estimate, specifically Japan, Indonesia, the Maldives, Mozambique, Thailand, Australia, Mexico, United States, Federated States of Micronesia and Palau. In many of the areas where directed fisheries for manta rays are known to occur, these activities overlap with manta ray tourism sites or the migratory range of the mantas on which these sites depend, and are likely to be unsustainable and detrimental to manta ray watching tourism. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3669133 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-36691332013-06-05 The Global Economic Impact of Manta Ray Watching Tourism O’Malley, Mary P. Lee-Brooks, Katie Medd, Hannah B. PLoS One Research Article As manta rays face increased threats from targeted and bycatch fisheries, manta ray watching tourism, if managed properly, may present an attractive economic alternative to consumptive use of these species. Both species in the genus Manta (Manta alfredi and Manta birostris) are classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List as species Vulnerable to extinction in the wild, and are considered unsustainable as fisheries resources due to their conservative life history characteristics, which considerably reduce their ability to recover population numbers when depleted. Utilising dive operator surveys, Internet research, and a literature review, this study provides the first global estimate of the direct economic impact of manta ray watching tourism and examines the potential socio-economic benefits of non-consumptive manta ray watching operations relative to consumptive use of manta rays as a fishery resource. In the 23 countries in which manta ray watching operations meeting our criteria were identified, we estimated direct revenue to dive operators from manta ray dives and snorkels at over US$73 million annually and direct economic impact, including associated tourism expenditures, of US$140 million annually. Ten countries account for almost 93% of the global revenue estimate, specifically Japan, Indonesia, the Maldives, Mozambique, Thailand, Australia, Mexico, United States, Federated States of Micronesia and Palau. In many of the areas where directed fisheries for manta rays are known to occur, these activities overlap with manta ray tourism sites or the migratory range of the mantas on which these sites depend, and are likely to be unsustainable and detrimental to manta ray watching tourism. Public Library of Science 2013-05-31 /pmc/articles/PMC3669133/ /pubmed/23741450 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065051 Text en © 2013 O’Malley et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article O’Malley, Mary P. Lee-Brooks, Katie Medd, Hannah B. The Global Economic Impact of Manta Ray Watching Tourism |
title | The Global Economic Impact of Manta Ray Watching Tourism |
title_full | The Global Economic Impact of Manta Ray Watching Tourism |
title_fullStr | The Global Economic Impact of Manta Ray Watching Tourism |
title_full_unstemmed | The Global Economic Impact of Manta Ray Watching Tourism |
title_short | The Global Economic Impact of Manta Ray Watching Tourism |
title_sort | global economic impact of manta ray watching tourism |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3669133/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23741450 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065051 |
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