New tourism licences for whale sharks

Recently the State Government announced the allocation of 14 commercial licences for whale shark interaction tours in WA's world-renowned Ningaloo Marine Park.

Environment Minister David Templeman said swimming with WA's whale sharks was iconic tourism attraction that drew people from all over the world.

"For many it is a once in a lifetime opportunity, but it is essential that any interaction with these special creatures is managed sustainably to protect this magnificent species," he said.

Mr Templeman said the licences were regulated and granted by the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC). These new licences were granted in preparation of the expiry in December 2008 of the current licences.

"The new licences will be effective from 1 January 2009 and are valid for a period of up to five years, with possibility of renewal for a further period of five years."

Mr Templeman said the new licences were allocated after a publicly advertised call for expressions of interest on 1 August 2007. Applications closed on 11 September 2007. Applicants were required to address and were assessed against sustainability criteria related to natural environment performance, social environment performance and economic environment performance.

"Twenty-two applications were received for the 15 available licences," he said. "As a result of the extensive selection process, it was determined that only 14 applications met the required standards.

"As a result one licence will remain vacant for three years, when the situation will be reviewed.

"The licences entail specific conditions that govern the tours and operators will be independently-audited every year to ensure that the standards are maintained and moving towards world's best practice."

The Minister said that another feature of the licensing process was the requirement for all operators to install GPS based electronic log books, which would allow them to input interaction information with automatic track capacity, enabling data to be transmitted back to a central database.

"This will allow accurate and timely collection of data - an important management tool for DEC to learn and understand more about whale sharks and the marine environment of the park," he said.

"It is intended that the use of this sort of technology will be expanded across the State to assist in conservation management.

"Similar units are successfully used to manage the interaction tours in Shark Bay Marine Park after rearch identified unacceptable impacts from tourism activities on the world famous dolphins of Monkey Mia."

Tourism Minister Sheila McHale supported the decision to grant only 14 licences to ensure that the quality of operations was of the highest standard.

"Whale shark interaction tours are one of the world's great wildlife tourism attractions," Ms McHale said.

"Tourism Western Australia was directly involved in the assessment process and is committed to ensuring sustainable tourism experiences.

"Tourism WA will work with the operators and DEC to continue to improve the experience and market it to the world."