Dolphin-feeding tourism contributes to predicted dolphin decline
A study published in the journal Oikos, titled "Forecasting the impact of food-provisioning and other stressors on a marine top-predator population," found that without protective management, the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin population off Bunbury would fall from 350 to eight over 100 years.
A new study published in Oikos predicts that without protective measures, the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin population off the Bunbury coast could plummet from 350 individuals to just eight over the course of a century. Dr. Valeria Senigaglia, a researcher from QUT's School of Biology and Environmental Science, explains that while feeding wild dolphins is prohibited in Australia, four locations have been granted limited food provision for tourism.
Feeding dolphins has been linked to begging behavior, inappropriate food intake, injury, and entanglement from fishing gear. However, the article emphasizes that the impact of food provisioning can't be isolated, as dolphins face numerous other stressors such as climate change, recreational watercraft, disease outbreaks, algal blooms, oil spills, and habitat degradation.
The researchers utilized a decade-long monitoring study and a population viability analysis model to simulate population dynamics over the next 100 years, comparing scenarios with fed and non-fed dolphins and additional scenarios including a morbillivirus outbreak, human disturbances, and catastrophic events like harmful algal blooms and oil spills.
They found that food provisioning accelerates the decline, doubling the probability of extinction over the next century, while stopping the practice could enhance dolphins' resilience to other severe stressors.
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