In today’s post, we will examine how the tourism industry is contributing to pollution in the host countries.
Whale Shark
Whale Shark tourism saw an exponential increase in demand since 2011. In 2015, Oslob, Philippines was host to more than 300,000 visitors that year (Wong et al., 2018). Thus, it raises the question of whale shark tourism sustainability. As whale sharks are generally attracted to the shallow reefs, the presence of humans near coral reefs has been discovered to have negative impacts.
For instance, the increase in snorkelers and boats can result in a reduction of herbivorous reef fishes which in turn facilitates the growth of macroaglae (Wong et al., 2018). Whereas, excretion of human waste into the water bodies might result in a spike in nutrients causing more algal growth and this might inhibit coral growth. The addition of nitrogen might also potentially cause algal to overgrow and contribute to disease outbreak hence resulting in the decline of coral cover and diversity (Baker et al., 2013).
Moreover, the study also established a link between tourist site and reef degradation and nitrogen pollution. One of the main sources of nitrogen pollution comes from provisioning, sweage-derieved pollution and tourism activities. Baker et al. (2013) study revealed that a reduction in tourists numbers (37%) to Solidaridad municipality significantly reduce the amount of sewage-derived nitrogen to the reefs in Akumal. As such human sources of nitrogen are known to disrupt the coral symbiosis and reef community structure hence it would be beneficial if host countries enact regulations to manage the influx of tourist to practice sustainable tourism.
If you are interested as to how whale sharks look like, feel free to take a look at this video to learn more about these gentle giants! 😀
Cheers,
Shee Wen & Nicole 
References
Baker, D.M., Rodríguez-Martínez, R.E. & Fogel, M.L. (2013), “Tourism’s nitrogen footprint on a Mesoamerican coral reef”, Coral reefs, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 691-699.
Wong, C.W.M., Conti-Jerpe, I., Raymundo, L.J., Dingle, C., Araujo, G., Ponzo, A. & Baker, D.M. (2018), “Whale Shark Tourism: Impacts on Coral Reefs in the Philippines”, Environmental management (New York), vol. 63, no. 2, pp. 282-291.