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5.3.10 Recreational activities

An important factor in effectively managing the Cardigan Bay cSAC, and particularly recreational activities, is the level and quality of education and awareness held by those who use the cSAC and other areas of Cardigan Bay. Many of the actions in the following two recreation sections address the requirement to maintain awareness and education at a high level. As well as benefiting the management of recreational activities these will assist the management of many other activities addressed within this document.

5.3.10.1   Swimming, snorkelling and diving

a.    Extent of the activity

i.   Within the site

The Ceredigion coast is important for tourism. The number of staying visitors in the area between Aberaeron and Cardigan in 1990 was nearly 392,000. Many of these use the local beaches for recreation including swimming and snorkelling. Enhanced water quality, due to improved waste water treatment, at some beaches may further encourage these activities. SCUBA diving occurs along the coast and local diving clubs exist in Cardigan, Aberaeron and Aberystwyth. The quality of local diving does not however attract many holidaying clubs as these typically prefer to enjoy the greater water clarity and more attractive underwater topography found elsewhere in the UK.(e.g. Pembrokeshire).

ii.  Adjacent to the site

Swimming, snorkelling and diving are popular and occur all along the Cardigan Bay coast, especially during the summer months. Diving is most popular around the Pembrokeshire coast.

b.    Mechanism for effect on the feature

There is the potential for people swimming in the sea to purposely or incidentally interact with the bay’s bottlenose dolphins. Close interaction, including physical contact, with dolphins may result in:

  • dolphin harassment,

  • physical injury to human or dolphin,

  • increased risk of pathogen transfer between human and dolphin and vice versa.

Frequent close interaction between humans and dolphins may result in habituation of the dolphins to close contact with humans. A loss of ‘wildness’ such as this may result in altered behaviour, increased interaction with humans and all the potential impacts that these may cause.

Use of a boat to provide access to enable swimming with dolphins may result in dolphin harassment or collision between dolphin and boat. See following section on recreational vessels as well as sections on ‘Harassment’, ‘Noise’, ‘Pathogens’, and ‘Collisions’. Further information on interactions between recreation activities and SAC site features will be obtainable from the Life report, ‘Saunders. C., Selwyn. J., Richardson. S., May. V. and Heeps. C. 2000. Recreational User Interactions. in prep.’ [129]

c.    Management Response

i.   Rationale

Although there has been swimming and diving with bottlenose dolphins adjacent to Cardigan Bay in the past, it is not thought to have been a significant problem. Elsewhere within the world close interaction with ‘wild’ dolphins is of a commercial nature and there is the potential for interest in this sort of venture to increase in Cardigan Bay. Such commercial scale activities are likely to become detrimental to the dolphins and should therefore not be permitted. There is also the potential for individuals to seek their own “close encounters”, and this might be encouraged if commercially organised interactions were available. To intentionally disturb a bottlenose dolphin is an offence under the 1981 Wildlife & Countryside Act and under the 1994 Habitats Regulations, except under certain defined circumstances. This legislation may be sufficient to discourage inappropriate commercial and non‑commercial activity of this kind, although its effectiveness has been questioned. See ‘Harassment’. Seeking out dolphins to swim with should be discouraged. However, it is appreciated that direct interactions with dolphins may be initiated by the dolphins themselves and guidance for human behaviour under these circumstances should be available in a form which moderates human behaviour and does not encourage the activity.

ii.  Type of Response

F4 : There is a known mechanism for the activity to have an effect, but insufficient evidence at present to determine whether or not it is having a significant adverse effect.

iii.  Actions, including links to other policies/plans/measures.

  • Discourage swimming with dolphins by provision of information in the Code of Conduct and other appropriate publications.

  • Continue to enforce the Wildlife and Countryside Act and Habitats Regulations in relation to the protection of bottlenose dolphins from deliberate harm or disturbance.

  • Continue to seek improvements to species protection legislation, in particular to Part I of the Wildlife & Countryside Act and Regulation 39 of the Habitats Regulations. Under current legislation, it is not an offence to harm or disturb a bottlenose dolphin unintentionally. Thus there are some potentially harmful activities (such as direct human‑dolphin contact, high speed vessels approaching dolphins) which would not be offences under this legislation, since it would in most cases be very difficult to demonstrate that any resultant harm was deliberate, and of course in most cases it would not be deliberate.

5.3.10.2   Recreational vessels

This section deals with non commercial recreational craft such as motor cruisers, speed boats, yachts, dinghies and canoes. Commercial trip boats are dealt with under ‘Commercial Boat Trip Operators’.

a.   Extent of the activity

i.   Within the site

There are mooring facilities for 133 boats at New Quay; 80 at Aberaeron; and 200 at Cardigan, with yachting and boating clubs located at Aberaeron, New Quay, Tresaith, Aberporth, and Cardigan. Canoe and windsurf hire facilities are also available.

Variation in the types of boats involved in dolphin encounters at different sites

The presence of boats in the vicinity of bottlenose dolphins was recorded in one thousand four hundred and thirty nine 15 minute intervals from 1995 to 1999, as part of a study into Cetacean Site Use & Boat Traffic on the Ceredigion Marine Heritage Coast [130] . Most encounters were observed at New Quay (61%), even though no observations were carried out at this site in 1999. Encounters observed at Aberporth, Ynys Lochtyn and Mwnt represented 18%, 13% and 8% of all encounters respectively.

The types of boat most commonly recorded in encounters with bottlenose dolphins varied between study sites. Most passenger boat operate from New Quay, and most records of Visitor Passenger Boats (VPB) were therefore made at the New Quay study site (n = 355). There were fewer observations of VPBs at Ynys Lochtyn (40), and these again mostly involved boats based at New Quay. Dolphin encounters with VPBs were recorded only infrequently at Aberporth (11) and Mwnt (4).

Overall at New Quay, VPBs were recorded as the closest boat in 40% of encounters. The second most frequently recorded boat type, sailing boats, were present in 22% of encounters. At Aberporth there were a total of 253 encounters, mostly involving motor boats (36%), speedboats (23%) and sailing boats (21%). Of 187 encounters at Ynys Lochtyn, the predominant boat types were motor boats (26%) and VPBs (20%). At Mwnt, most encounters involved sailing boats (37%). Commercial fishing boats were recorded in a greater proportion of encounters at Mwnt (16%) than elsewhere (Table 5).

Table 12.   Closest vessel during dolphin-boat encounters.

Total encounters are given for each site and as percentages for each type of boat involved.

C = canoe; CF = commercial fishing boat; MB = motor boat; O = other; SB = speedboat; SCY = sailing boat, under sail; VPB = visitor passenger boat. ‘Other’ types included tugs and other vessels employed on Aberporth military range.

Site

%C

%CF

%MB

%O

%SB

%SCY

%VPB

total

Aberporth

7

6

36

2

22

21

4

253

Mwnt

4

16

14

14

13

37

2

118

New Quay

2

8

12

0

16

22

40

881

Ynys Lochtyn

4

5

36

2

17

17

20

187

A jetski was recorded as the nearest vessel in 1 encounter only, at Aberporth in 1994.

Levels of boat traffic in 1994, 1998 and 1999

Counts of the number of boats of different types were made for 2 hour watches in 1994, 1998 and 1999. These data allowed comparisons to be made of levels of boat use at the study sites over the duration of the project.

An index of the relative levels of boat traffic was calculated by dividing the total number of boats counted in 2 hour watches by the number of watches completed at each site. These data confirm that New Quay was ‘busiest’ site for boats, with approximately 3-4 times as much boat traffic recorded than at Ynys Lochtyn and Aberporth and 5-6 times as much as at Mwnt (Figure 20. ). There is clearly poor correlation between dolphin site use and the relative number of boats that use each site: observers at New Quay and Mwnt, the sites with highest sighting rates of dolphins, recorded the highest and the lowest levels of boat traffic respectively.

 

SAC boats counted in 2 hour watches

Figure 20. Total boat traffic at study sites in 1994, 1998 and 1999.

ii.  Adjacent to the site

Facilities for recreational vessels are more extensive outside the SAC at locations such as Milford Haven, Aberystwyth, Barmouth, Porthmadog and Pwllelli. In addition to these, there are numerous small slips and beaches for launching small vessels. Vessels enter the SAC from launching sites and safe havens further north and south of the site. Whilst some of these vessels may be visiting SAC waters, a proportion are in transit through the SAC.

b.    Mechanism for effect on the feature

Vessel activity on the sea increases levels of through water noise. This may disrupt the ability of bottlenose dolphins to communicate, navigate and hunt prey. Boat activity close to dolphins may result in an avoidance response where the dolphins cease their current activity and move away from the vessel. An increase in boat activity may result in inadvertent collision with dolphins.

Intensive and irregular boat activity, through disruption of normal dolphin activity, may deleteriously affect the dolphins energy budget resulting in reduced survivorship and reproductive success. See ‘Disturbance’ and ‘Collisions’.

c.    Management Response

i.   Rationale

It is accepted that recreational use of these coastal waters will continue, and could increase in the coming years. It is also clear that there is the potential for recreational vessels to have a significant impact on the dolphins and an impact may currently be present of which we are unaware. It will therefore be necessary for organisations to work cooperatively to ensure that recreational activities are non-damaging and consistent with the aims of the SAC. Education will be an important management tool for achieving this objective. There should be an aim to ensure that all visitors, including boat users, are aware of the existence and purposes of the SAC. This could be achieved, in part, by providing interpretation and education facilities for local people and visitors that will generate interest, appreciation and a commitment to conserve the SAC and the SAC feature.

A Boat Users Guide has been produced offering advice if cetaceans are encountered, and these are now distributed by the Harbourmasters at the main launching sites of New Quay, Aberaeron and Aberystwyth. The Afon Teifi Fairways Committee distribute the Boat Users Guide to all Cardigan mooring holders. However, no indication has been found to show that the behaviour or recreational motor boat and speedboat users has changed since the introduction of the Code of Conduct [132], [133].

Whilst further research is clearly needed, it is considered necessary to adopt a precautionary approach to management.

ii.  Type of Response

F4 : There is a known mechanism for the activity to have an effect, but insufficient evidence at present to determine whether or not it is having a significant adverse effect.

iii.  Actions, including links to other policies/plans/measures

Link: Marine Heritage Coast Management Plan:

  • Continue to keep Incident records and pass to relevant Harbourmaster for action.
  • Withdraw launching rights where necessary.
  • Develop activities zoning schemes where appropriate.
  • Maintain information/code of conduct signs at Aberporth, Llangrannog, Tresaith, New Quay, Cei Bach.
  • Maintain interpretative displays at local venues.
  • Continue to provide occasional educational wildlife boat trips.
  • Develop shore based guided walks.
  • Organise annual marine environment public events.
  • Continue to involve local people in monitoring projects.
  • Ensure that Beach Officer records are maintained.
  • Continue to undertake regular illustrated talks/presentations.
  • Assess the effectiveness of the New Quay speedboat zone and review.
  • Restore the Old Coastguard Lookout at Birds Rock, New Quay as a seabird & marine mammal lookout.

Other actions:

  • Maintain information/code of conduct signs at Poppit Sands launching points.
  • Discourage the development of commercial recreational activity which has the potential to disturb the bottlenose dolphins.
  • Provide new information/code of conduct signs at Cardigan, Gwbert, Llanrhystud and Aberaeron.
  • Maintain Ceredigion Marine Conservation information posters at beach display panels.
  • Continue to provide MHC/SAC information for inclusion in the Ceredigion Tide Time Tables.
  • Ensure that the Council’s Economic and Tourism Department carry information about the MHC/SAC in their publications.
  • Regularly review the Ceredigion County Council’s ‘Boat Users Guide’ and reproduce when necessary.
  • Continue to provide MHC/SAC articles for the Ceredigion County Council’s ‘Seafarer’ newsletter issued to all mooring holders.
  • Determine whether behavioural reactions to dolphin watching boats are the result of reactions to boat noise or boating behaviour and/or volume.
  • Keep records of boat launches at Aberaeron, Aberystwyth and New Quay.
  • Devise a database to link data relevant to the SAC currently available in other Council departments.
  • Obtain better information on the distribution of dolphins throughout Cardigan Bay to identify sensitive areas where speed restrictions are necessary.
  • Assess current and future levels of recreational boat traffic, and determine which areas are used most intensively. Use these data to determine whether provision of launching or other facilities can be used to direct recreational traffic to areas that are not favoured by dolphins.
  • Review local byelaws in light of the DETR’s Review of Byelaw Powers for the Coast.
  • Seek venue/s in Cardigan for interpretative displays.
  • Explore, with existing Marine Interpretation centres, the possibility of establishing a SAC Interpretation Centre.
  • Continue to make available the joint PCNPA and PCC ‘fast craft code of practice’ to boat users.
  • Take account of the conservation requirements of the SAC in the development of any new codes of practice/conduct for water-borne activities off the Pembrokeshire coast.
  • Continue to enforce the Wildlife and Countryside Act and Habitats Regulations in relation to the protection of bottlenose dolphins from deliberate harm or disturbance.
  • Continue to seek improvements to species protection legislation, in particular to Part I of the Wildlife & Countryside Act and Regulation 39 of the Habitats Regulations. Under current legislation, it is not an offence to harm or disturb a bottlenose dolphin unintentionally. Thus there are some potentially harmful activities (such as direct human‑dolphin contact, high speed vessels approaching dolphins) which would not be offences under this legislation, since it would in most cases be very difficult to demonstrate that any resultant harm was deliberate, and of course in most cases it would not be deliberate.

[129] On completion this report will be available from: http://www.english-nature.org.uk/uk-marine/

[130] Pierpoint, C. and Allan, L. 2000 Cetacean Site Use & Boat Traffic on the Ceredigion Marine Heritage Coast, West Wales 1994-1999. Cyngor Sir Ceredigion

[132] Ceredigion, Aberaeron. Ceredigion County Council. 1998. Marine Heritage Coast Management Plan 1998 - 2000. Ceredigion, Aberaeron.

[133] Pierpoint, C. and Allan, L. 2000 Cetacean Site Use & Boat Traffic on the Ceredigion Marine Heritage Coast, West Wales 1994-1999. Cyngor Sir Ceredigion