Living on the Edge

I live on the edge of wilderness.

I forget that sometimes. When I sit out on the deck with the sun shining, water calm. When I watch paddle boarders out on Burrows Bay, when kids are playing on the beach near the marina. When I sit at my computer, in the comfort of my house, with the heat on and food in the refrigerator.

I forget.

It doesn't take much to remind me.

The storm tracks into the Puget Sound. The water is glassy, the sky leaden with a hint of light to the north. I hear the wind begin to move through the trees far above my roof and as I move out to the deck, I can see the gusts of wind dancing across the water. One direction, glancing off the hill, then moving in the other direction. I watch a particularly strong gust as it skims along the surface towards me - and then it touches my face, it moans through the trees.

Within minutes - minutes - the wind gusts have started moving the water. Where there were no swells there are many. Small at first, almost languid. Within the hour, the swells are four to five feet high. Now it matters where the tide is at. The swells hit the sandbar and become waves. The waves roll and crash with the hollow sound of thunder into the rock below my house. The salt spray coats my windows.

Now it begins to rain. Bands of rain. Within minutes all the pine needles on my roof are now blocking my gutters. Water pours off the roof, saturating the sharp cliff closest to the foundation. Pine cones fall, shattering against the concrete roof tiles like gunshots. The cats are now hiding under the bed. I want to join them.

I learned long ago that the sea is not benign. Like any wild place, it can be incredibly hazardous to the unwary. And yet, it is also a landscape that embodies such peace and tranquility. Not during stormy weather. Not when you are caught in a particularly strong current or tide. Water lays claim to this planet like no other element.

And I've chosen to live right up against it.

Sometimes it is exhilarating and other times I am nervous living on a bank overlooking the sea. There is no way to be lulled into complacency or forget that I, too, am but a small speck of life clinging to the shoreline. This place demands acquiescence.  It demands acceptance of my frail tenacity.

And it is in that acceptance that I connect to this wild place and fall in love all over again.

Ecotourism - a dilemma

 When I was sitting in the first class for my marine naturalist training, the speakers that day talked about Place. Place in the San Juan Islands is predicated on the unique ecosystem that is found here. One of the speakers talked briefly about ecotourism as an important part of the local economy. She spoke about ecotourism as a positive force that helps people appreciate aspects of the natural environment. In the San Juan Islands this has everything to do with the killer whales, our resident (and transient) Orcas. But I wondered about the increasing impact of the tourist industry in this area just as I wondered what qualified any tour operator to be "ecotourist" friendly.
So I started doing some research on ecotourism as an industry.

As you can imagine, promoting travel based on the natural environment, native species/habitat, or indigenous populations has had - and can have - incredible impact on those resources, cultures, and communities. Look back to the early days of Yellowstone National Park, the Galapagos Islands more recently, and any number of regions that promote tourist activity today in and near awe-inspiring ecosystems, and we see loss of those resources, damage and erosion, and irrevocable changes brought on by the infrastructures needed to support the tourist activities. And yes, we see conservation, education and research dollars created as well.

Governance and management over these resources are doing their best to balance protecting the resources and helping the public engage with that resource. Engagement is critical to the protection of these natural resources because people support (with their dollars) what they have a connection to - what they feel part of. However, it is equally impossible to keep large numbers of humans from having a detrimental impact on those resources.

Ecotourism - just the word itself - causes part of the problem. No one agrees on a definition. And yet, everyone (who benefits from its marketing power) uses the term to get people to use their services. Ecotourism often means one thing to a customer (tourist) and something else to the service provider. Also, Ecotourism is socially constructed - which basically means that it is a term that is going to mean something different in varied corners of the country and larger world.

As I sat pondering ecotourism in the San Juan Islands, especially how it relates to  unique habitats and species that make their homes here, I wondered what our regional definition is.

The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) put this definition out in 2015:
Ecotourism is "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people and involves interpretation and education."

One of the main principals that TIES puts out is that authentic ecotourism has minimal impact on the resources that are the subject of the tourist activity. It is also interesting to note that "interpretation and education" are explicitly highlighted as key to ecotourism.

How then, can the whale watching industry claim to be an ecotourism activity? Sure, they have naturalist often on board to educate - but their impact is not minimal. (UW News Summary).

This is a dilemma: On the one hand, the efforts to engage the public in appreciating the various whales that use the Salish Sea as prime habitat has promoted changes in policy and protection for not only whales but salmon species and other habitats throughout our region. Naming the whales, promoting research and sharing that research has brought in critical funding to protect the whole ecosystem. Standing on the bow of a whale watching tour boat and seeing the orcas breaching and playing in the waters off San Juan Island is something most people never forget. I've had folks straight off the tour coming to the Whale Museum and 'adopting' the whale that they had seen with their own eyes. We humans love stories - and these whales now have histories and stories along with names.

On the other hand: All of that continued research has also given us irrevocable proof that boat engine noise is putting continual stress on the pods of whales as they try to find the decreasing supply of salmon. Whale researchers are the first to acknowledge that they don't know all there is to know yet about the Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW) and their habits but what they are learning about the impact of boat traffic is troubling.

"A variety of human interactions, such as exploitation, habitat degradation, and pollution, are known to have negative effects on wildlife populations, while even non-lethal human disturbance, such as wildlife viewing, can be perceived by observed animals as a predation risk and result in energy costs and effects on survival and reproduction [4]. Therefore, it is important to better understand the extent of human use of the environment so that negative consequences on animal populations can be assessed and mitigated." (Research Article) * 

"Such ship noise has the potential to mask odontocete signals, especially in coastal environments where shipping lanes are close enough to the shoreline (<10 km) that high frequency sound is not fully absorbed. In the summertime habitat of the endangered SRKWs ship noise may interfere not only with SRKW communication (vocalizations) but also foraging and navigation (echolocation clicks)"(Link to study) **

Both of the above studies took place in the last five years. What has spurred the flurry of research?

The whale watching industry has increased exponentially in the last ten years and Haro Strait freighter traffic (including oil tankers) has increased as well. While the U.S. registered tour boats follow the regulations regarding distance and sound, the Canadian tour operators don't have the same rules. With the Orcas traversing the boundary waters between Washington State and British Columbia as their primary hunting grounds, there is only so much regulation that can be enforced. We could also talk about all the pleasure boat captains who don't think those regulations apply to their yachts - and suddenly what is being marketed as a major part of an eco tour destination is anything but.

The more we learn about killer whale behavior and feeding strategies, the more it becomes obvious that boat traffic is detrimental to an already endangered species ability to thrive (see above articles). Maybe that statement goes farther than some folks in our area would put out there, but we are talking about a species population (SRKW) that is less than 100 and has yet to recover from the exploitation and capture of population back in the 70's. Sure we have other pods of killer whales in the area that seem to be doing well, but our resident killer whales are struggling. How do the varied tour companies manage which pods they follow? Can they? Would they?

It is a hard balancing act in the face of the research. How do we continue to promote engagement with the natural world (which whale watching tours can do in a wonderful way) while also promoting sustainable conservation? I've talked to park rangers and enviromentalists all over the west in regards to this question and the answers aren't unanimous.  People want to connect to the natural world and people want to make a living guiding those experiences - and other people want to utilize some of the funds created from that partnership for research and conservation. We could probably expand out that list to include all the varied industry and services that profit from supporting the desire to see our extraordinary world. If you have been to Moab, UT over the last thirty years, you understand what I'm talking about when a community explodes to exploit all the tourists coming in to wander through Arches and Canyonland National Parks.

From my own experiences over the years, I would wish for two things:

• A guiding definition of Ecotourism that establishes a certificate with a list of criteria for any company wishing to use that designation for marketing purposes. If a tour operator wants to market itself as ecotourist friendly then they will have to comply with a list of principals as set forth by the certificate. This is done in so many other industries  - and I think there are folks out there trying to do this - but enforcing it has been difficult. It's got to mean something to the consumer of this product. The National Park Service, as a regulatory management practice, tries to do this in its own backyard, but outside of their jurisdiction, how do we really craft ecotourism that actually works? We first and foremost have to educate the consumer in regards to why it is so important to follow guidelines that promote conservation with minimal impact. We, as consumers, have to buy-in to the importance behind changing some of our behaviors in order to preserve the resources/habitats/species that we are there to appreciate.
• My other wish has everything to do with moderation. Our voracious consumerism is a cultural paradigm that needs to shift in order to sustain our ecosystems. We, as the consumer, need to shift our expectations because no industry out there is going to shift their priorities regarding profit. Again, the consumer needs to look for the tour operators who embrace sustainability, conservation and education equally. Corporate america doesn't work that way. Small, independent businesses might be able to -  and, perhaps, also market themselves accordingly. 

My opinion?

Ecotourism, right now, is a catch phrase used to entice a certain segment of the tourist population into 'feel good' travel. How it is defined by the operator and the customer don't have to line up to capture a market share of ecologically minded travelers. The onus is on us, the traveler to do our research and ask questions of the various providers of these tourist activities.

Here in the Salish Sea, it is going to become increasingly important that educators and stewardship programs like Soundwatch host a conversation with service providers regarding sustainability and oversight. They are working hard, hand in hand with so many great tour operators here in our area to create a community of stewardship. It is too bad that a few less mindful groups and private boaters make it harder for everyone to help keep these resources accessible.

Here is a list of principals for ecotourism*** that we can all watch for:

• Minimize physical, social, behavioral, and psychological impacts.
• Build environmental and cultural awareness, and respect.
• Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts.
• Produce direct financial benefits for conservation.
• Generate financial benefits for both local people and private industry.
• Deliver memorable interpretative experiences to visitors that help raise sensitivity to host countries' political, environmental, and social climates.
• Design, construct and operate low-impact facilities.
• 
  

Citations
*Houghton J, Holt MM, Giles DA, Hanson MB, Emmons CK, Hogan JT, et al. (2015) The Relationship between Vessel Traffic and Noise Levels Received by Killer Whales (Orcinus orca). PLoS ONE 10(12): e0140119. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0140119

** Veirs S, Veirs V, Wood JD. (2016) Ship noise extends to frequencies used for echolocation by endangered killer whales. PeerJ 4:e1657 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1657

*** TIES 2015 annoucement of revised principals for ecotourism