Over the past ~30 years, cetacean-based tourism focused on free-ranging animals has grown rapidly, providing an alternative source of wealth to communities and a way to educate people about ocean conservation. It has also led to unsustainable practices causing stress, declines in reproductive success, displacement and poor education. The opportunity to have close encounters via swim-with and boat-based tours is now available throughout the world and with increasing numbers of whales there are more opportunities arising. One of the challenges is sustainable management.

The killer whales of the Strait of Gibraltar are considered distinct from other subpopulations in the Northeast Atlantic, based on studies of photo-identification data, mitochondrial DNA, microsatellite genetic markers, stable isotope ratios and contaminant loads. This small subpopulation, with a low number of mature individuals, depends heavily on an endangered prey species, the Atlantic bluefin tuna.

Narwhals are endemic to the Arctic where they divide their time between offshore ice-covered winter habitats and coastal ice-free summering areas. They show little flexibility in migration routes and their remarkable fidelity to summering areas is used to discriminate stocks. Low and declining abundance estimates, combined with increasing catch levels, indicate that several stocks in Greenland are at risk of extirpation.

The staff, students, and collaborating scientists of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program (SDRP) engage in research, conservation, and education/outreach activities to benefit cetaceans in Sarasota Bay, Florida, and elsewhere around the world.  The SDRP conducts the world’s longest-running study of a wild dolphin population, initiated in 1970.  Information available from five decades of research on the multi-decadal, multi-generational, year-round resident community of individually identifiable bottlenose dolphins of Sarasota Bay established this as a unique natural laboratory fo