Onshore visitor facilities are needed to maximise the benefits of a fledgling marine tourism business in west Clare, the manager of the Shannon Dolphin and Wildlife Foundation, Dr Simon Berrow, has said.
Dolphin watching in the area was formalised in June 2000 with a Government-approved accreditation scheme for boats to protect the rare school of more than 100 of the mammals, which live at the mouth of the Shannon Estuary, and to regulate the industry which grew up around the Fungi phenomenon in Dingle.
"There is very little added value to the dolphin-watching trips once visitors return to shore," Dr Berrow said, following a record year of business.
The scheme, which includes a monitoring programme, is part of a wider initiative to promote marine tourism as a viable industry in marginalised coastal areas.
Dr Berrow said Bord Fáilte and other agencies needed to start marketing the State's marine tourism potential, which includes the Shannon Estuary as a proposed Special Area of Conservation (SAC) region for bottlenose dolphins under the EU Habitats Directive. This would give the dolphins - the only resident school in the State's waters - and their habitat protection from interference.
Dr Berrow said that despite the foot-and-mouth scare in 2001 there were 473 boat trips from Kilrush and Carrigaholt in Clare and Doon in north Kerry, mostly during the peak months of July and August. An estimated 15,000 people were carried on the trips, an increase of 25 per cent on 2000. They spent up to €1.4 million (£1.1 million) in the area. Most, however, go their separate ways after the trip.
"There is an urgent need to develop onshore facilities, information boards, walking routes and tours to enhance the tourism product in the region.
"The best way to increase the economic impact of tourism is to get people to stay overnight," Dr Berrow said.
Dolphin watching in the estuary began in 1993 and has been steadily building as an industry to where two purpose-built boats were purchased in 2000.
Dr Berrow said monitoring of the possible effect of the increased boating activity on the dolphins had revealed few changes in their behaviour.
Tour boats located dolphins on 96 per cent of trips.