From our online Whale-Safe Boating course:
Dall’s Porpoises and dolphin species may choose to bow- or stern-ride. But at other times, they are feeding, socializing, resting, etc.
Boaters (motorized or unmotorized) are not to approach and attempt to solicit an interaction. There are minimum avoidance distances and further laws under the Marine Mammal Regulations that relate to human activity around dolphins and porpoises.
Best practices are:
If they approach your vessel, the ideal is to reduce speed gradually and stop. This reduces the risk of habituating the animals to boats.
If it is not possible to slow down and/or stop, hold your course.
Laws are:
Under the Marine Mammal Regulations, disturbance includes when vessels are in violation of the minimum avoidance distances.
For porpoises and dolphins (other than Orca), the relevant avoidance distances are:
- 200 metres if with calves or resting.
- Otherwise, 100 metres.
Additional text from the Marine Mammal Regulations includes that no person shall “approach a marine mammal to, or to attempt to,
- feed it
- swim with it or interact with it
- move it or entice or cause it to move from the immediate vicinity in which it is found
- separate it from members of its group or go between it and a calf
- trap it or its group between a vessel and the shore or between a vessel and one or more other vessels
- tag or mark it”
For more, please take the course at www.WhaleSafeBoating.org
