Sexy beasts and devoted mums: narrating nature through dolphin tourism

1 IntroductionFor many pleasure-seeking tourists, New Zealand is synonymous with `nature'(1) tourism.Indeed, the country's tourism board sells the country as ` 100% pure'', building uponand promoting the nation's reputation as one of the world's premier `natural' destina-tions, with plenty of activities for ecotourists and adventure tourists alike (http://www.purenz.com/; Cloke and Perkins, 1998; 2005). Amongst tourists visiting NewZealand, one activity that has become popular is cruises that enable viewing of andswimming with dolphins. In this paper we focus upon this ecotourism/nature tourismactivity within New Zealand.

Viewing and swimming with dolphins takes place in taken-for-granted naturalspaces. In New Zealand, whether the tour occurs in the Bay of Plenty or in Kaikoura,dolphin cruise tourists need little convincing that what they are experiencing is `real'nature. Yet, for a swim with dolphins in the so-called real nature, tourists quite willinglyoverlook the Auckland skyline, the state-of-art boat they are on, bulky wetsuits andsnorkelling gear, or that they are sharing their wilderness experience with forty or fiftyother humans. Tourists' immediate landscape is not necessarily a `natural' one, whateverthat may be, and it is the encounter or the potential encounter with nonhumans oranimals that effectively transforms what is a cultural and commodified landscape into anatural one.

Sexy beasts and devoted mums: narrating nature throughdolphin tourism

Kathryn BesioDepartment of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Hawaii at Hilo,200 West Kawili Street, Hilo, HI 96720, USA; e-mail: [email protected]

Lynda Johnston, Robyn LonghurstDepartment of Geography, Tourism and Environmental Planning, University of Waikato,Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, Aotearoa, New Zealand; e-mail: [email protected],[email protected] 22 October 2005; in revised form 17 August 2006

Environment and Planning A 2008, volume 40, pages 1219 ^ 1234

Abstract. This paper focuses upon a growing activity within New Zealand's ecotourism market:viewing and swimming with dolphins. Drawing on poststructuralist feminist theory we examinesome of the ways in which New Zealand dolphin tour operators and others represent dolphins inrelation to sex and gender. Three sets of data inform this research: (1) promotional materials, such aspostcards, brochures, Internet websites, and advertising; (2) participant-observation on dolphin swimtours; and (3) interviews with tour operators. We argue that dolphins are constructed paradoxically assexually polyamorous and promiscuousösexy beastsöand as loving and maternalödevoted mums.These seemingly contradictory narratives about dolphins and nature perform different functions. Thediscourse of dolphins as sexy beasts can be read as an attempt by tour operators to use sex to enhancethe quality of a product. Tourists are offered an opportunity to experience `wild nature' as sexualized`other'. The discourse of dolphins as devoted mums can be read as an attempt by tour operators toanthropomorphize dolphins and offers tourists an opportunity to experience `domestic nature'. Foster-ing a connection between humans and dolphins helps to highlight the need for environmentalprotection to ensure the continuation of the species and `tourist dollars'.

DOI:10.1068/a38424

(1) We place `nature' in quotes to call attention to its ambiguous and contested meanings, especiallythe ways that nonhuman animals are often considered to be more a part of nature than humananimals. Henceforth, quotes will be left off the term `nature', although they are still implied.

The activities of whale watching and swimming with dolphins have grown rapidlyin recent years (see Cloke and Perkins, 2005). It is estimated that in 1983 only twelvecountries participated in whale and dolphin watching, whereas by 1998 approximately100 countries and 9 million participants were involved (Hoyt, 2000). Within thisglobal ecotourism market, New Zealand is an important destination for viewing andswimming with dolphins (Constantine and Yin, 2003). According to New Zealand'sDepartment of Conservation there are fifty-six companies permitted to allow dolphinswims, with twenty two of them selling dolphin swims as the main attraction (http://www.wdcs.org/dan/publishing.nsf ).

Our main interest and aim in this article is to examine some of the ways in whichNew Zealand dolphin tour operators and others represent dolphin's sex and genderrelations to tourists and, in so doing, re-present nature as well. In order to carry outthis examination, we draw on feminist theorizing of sexuality, gender, and embodimentin tourism studies (Aitchison, 2001; 2003; Ateljevic, 2001; Frohlick, 2006; Pritchardand Morgan, 2000; Puar, 2002a; 2002b). We conclude that dolphins are representedparadoxically as both sexy beasts and devoted mums.

This paradoxical representation enables ecotourism operators to promote dolphinsas creatures that, on the one hand, are wild and different from humans and more likenature. However, on the other hand, they are not so different from humans, thus natureis domesticated for consumption. In a sense, this tactic of making something wild anddomestic is a kind of dual inversion and one that continues to naturalize heteronorma-tivity. Chilla Bulbeck (2005) notes that, over the centuries, humans have projected ontodolphins their dreams and desires. ` Dolphins have occupied the cultural imaginary asbearers of alternative values such as collectivity, compassion, friendliness, creativity,joyful sexuality, androgyny, spiritual wisdom and intuitive intelligence'' (Bryld andLykke, 2000, page 2). Bulbeck (2005, page 86) offers an explanation for dolphin desiresuggesting that ` dolphins are the Western world's pangolin, ambiguous or liminalcreatures at the borderlands of our classification system. Given this location, weritualize dolphins in order to align the contradictions of good and evil, death andlife'', and we would add nature and culture. Dolphin ecotourism operators ritualizethese liminal animals as sexy beasts in wild nature and/or as devoted mums in orderto domesticate nature. The discourse of dolphins as sexy beasts helps ecotourismoperators to increase their market share because `sex sells' and conforms to humanperceptions of a `wild' nature. The discourse of dolphins as devoted mums helpsoperators to bolster profits and conservation efforts. Understanding dolphin tourismthrough these seemingly contradictory sexed and gendered discourses illustrates someof the complexity surrounding ecotourist spaces and contested notions of nature(Macnaghten and Urry, 1998). Competing discourses around sex and gender enableecotourism operators to create a space in which it is possible to reinforce hegemonicrelations and/or create alternative ones.

The paper is divided into five sections after the introduction. Section 2 reviewsbriefly some of the recent literature in critical tourism studies that focuses on gender,sex, and embodiment. We also alert readers to the burgeoning literature on the rela-tionship between humans and animals. Our reading of this literature is filtered throughour specific interest in the discourses of sex and gender that surround dolphins.

In section 3, we outline the methodological process undertaken to conduct theresearch: namely a discourse analysis of tourism promotional materials, such asbrochures, Internet sites, and advertising; participant-observation on dolphin swimtours; and, finally, interviews with tour operators.

In section 4 we discuss how representing dolphins as polyamorous hetero- andhomosexual beings may be little more than the oldest marketing trick in the book:

1220 K Besio, L Johnston, R Longhurst

that is, using sex to enhance the quality of a product, in this case, the touristexperience. The more exotic or wild the sexuality and nature presented, the moreenticing it is for tourists who, by many accounts, always seek `other' experiences(Bulbeck, 2005; MacCannell, 1999; Shields, 1992; Urry, 2002). Additionally, thisdiscourse of nonnormative sexuality invokes its `other': heteronormativity.

In section 5, we turn our attention to dolphin maternities and discuss the ways inwhich this narrative frames the need for environmental protection through a self-evident desire to protect the spaces of dolphin `mothers and babies'. In accordancewith the Marine Mammals Protection Regulations (1992), New Zealand governmentregulations stipulate that tour operators keep swimmers out of the path of dolphinswith young calves or in the path of a school of dolphins. Narratives of protectingreproductive spaces and domestic nature rely upon anthropomorphizing dolphincows and calves as a means to make this nonhuman other' more like the human `self ',emphasizing similarities between species (see Desmond 1999).

We conclude that coconstructing dolphins as both sexy beasts and devoted mumsenables ecotourism operators to promote dolphins as creatures that, on the one hand,are wild, sexy, different, and exciting, and, on the other hand, are loving, cultural, andthe same as humans. Both discourses tend to elide the fact that ecotourism operatorsare in the business of selling nature which is constructed in seemingly contradictorywaysöas both wild and domesticatedöto diversify and add complexity to their product.

2 A burgeoning literatureWe are persuaded by Cara Aitchison (2001; 2003) that there is value in engagingperspectives developed in feminist and gender studies in order to develop new directionsin tourism research. Others, it seems, have also been persuaded since there is currentlya burgeoning literature in critical tourism studies that focuses on gender, sexuality,and embodiment (Aitchison, 2001; 2003; Crouch, 2005; Desmond, 1999; Swain, 2005).In this paper we draw on poststructuralist feminist and gender perspectives to examinesome of the representations of dolphins' sex and gender relations.

Tourism studies scholars have long been aware of the sexual and erotic componentof tourism, although until quite recently very few accounts have emphasized bodilypleasure or made explicit reference to embodied sexuality (see Johnston, 2005; Veijolaand Jokinen, 1994). Rather, tourism studies have tended to downplay the connectionbetween sexuality and embodiment, although sex never seems to be far from tourismmarketers' minds (Goss, 1993). One of the reasons for the absence of the body intourism is that until relatively recently tourism has been dominated by visualism, basedon the centrality of vision to concepts of modernity and abstraction (Crawshaw andUrry, 1997; Urry, 2002).

Lynda Johnston (2001) has suggested that tourist studies have privileged the visualand consequently have perhaps too readily colluded in writing out other bodily expe-riences of tourism. We do not wish to undermine the significance of the visual or oftourist gazes. However, we are concerned with a more embodied approach to tourismresearch. Certainly, swimming with dolphins draws upon much more than visualrepertoires of consumption and engages a variety of sensual experiences (Rodaway,1994).

Bodies are now moving towards occupying a more central position in tourismstudies, and researchers using social and cultural theories are paying more attentionto tourists' physical action and experience. For example, Paul Cloke and Harvey Perkins(1998) use tourism advertisement pamphlets in order to understand some of the bodilyactions and discursive formations associated with a range of tourism experiences,from bungee jumping to white-water rafting. Similarly, Brian Moeran (1983) conducts

Sexy beasts and devoted mums 1221

a content analysis of brochures marketed towards Japanese tourists and suggests that` they want to experience not sights but action, `to participate with their own skins'[ jibun no hada ni sanka suru ]'' (page 95). Cloke and Perkins (2005) start to unpack theperformative relationships between humans, whales and dolphins in a paper discussingthe performance of cetaceansöwhales, and dolphinsöand tourism in Kaikoura, NewZealand. Employing actor network theory and nonrepresentational theories of perfor-mativity (Thrift, 1999; 2000), they theorize that ` the staged mediation of tourists andcetaceans will result in assemblages of relationally achieved performance that will beboth distinctive and significant to the coconstitution, performance, and meaning ofplace'' (Cloke and Perkins, 2005, page 906). They note but do not discuss in detail theways in which tourists experience of cetacean tourism varies according to gender, ageand adventurousness.

Dolphin swimming offers tourists an up-close viewing experience, with the addedattraction that viewing takes place by sharing the watery spaces of nature withdolphins. While tour guides narrate nature to tourists, the embodied interactionsbetween tourists and dolphins in dolphins' ostensibly natural spaces contribute to theways that tourists come to understand nature as both a wild and a protected space.

` It's nice when you know you've had a great tour out there and people just comeback beaming and they can't wait to get home and tell everyone about it. Theycome in here telling you, you can hear it all the time: that they are so excited aboutit [the swim], that they speak to you for ages telling you, oh the dolphins are thebest'' (Pippa at Dolphin Encounter, Kaikoura).(2)

The embodied experience of dolphin tourismöbeing in dolphins' spaces not justgazing upon themöproduces an intimate connection between the seer and the seen,and between humans and nonhuman animals. We had read about swimmers' enthu-siasm in guest logs and heard over and over again from people who guided the toursthat swimming with dolphins was much more than detached gazing upon animals:it produced an emotional response.

`We've had people, I say this most of the time, but people who emotionally get just[overwhelmed]. We've had people burst into tears when we just get out and sud-denly we find the pod of dolphins. Yeah, it is the excitement and coming in fromthat first swim and coming out of the boat and you hear all the exclamations andtalking to one another about [it]: `did you see that?'' (Adam at Dolphin Encounter,Kaikoura).

We found that emotional responses to swimming with dolphins were similar to thosediscussed by Cloke and Perkins (2005). Emotions include anxiety about the weather,excited anticipation, nervousness about being in the water and close to the dolphins,followed by `animated' discussions about the experience. Close and embodied inter-actions between tourists and locals, or tourists and animals/nature such as the onesdescribed above, are central to the experience of what has come to be known as`alternative tourism'.(3)

Undoubtedly, new critical tourism studies that focus on gender, sexuality, andembodiment are now emerging including accounts of queer tourism. A special issue ofthe journal GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies (2002) entitled ` Queer tourism:geographies of globalization'' is the first edited collection to address same-sex sexuality

(2) The methodology used for this research is discussed in detail in the following sections.(3) Alternative tourism may be defined as ` forms of tourism that are consistent with natural, social,and community values and which allow hosts and guests to enjoy positive and worthwhile inter-action and shared experiences'' (Smith and Eadington, 1992, page 3). On dolphin tours, theinteractions described are nearly all positive and are perceived by both tour operators and touristsas worthwhile ones.


and travel. The special issue documents, describes, and theorizes the growth of gay andlesbian tourism as well as other forms of queer travel. Editor Jasbir Puar (2002b, page 1)notes: ` queer tourism is still one of the least researched or discussed topics in scholarlyvenues'' [but see Annette Pritchard and Nigel Morgan (2000) who have been researchinggay and lesbian tourism for several years, and Johnston (2001; 2005)].

There is also a new and burgeoning literature on `animal geographies', which high-lights the ways in which spaces and places are bound up in human ^ animal relationsand assumptions about nature (Anderson, 1995; Cloke and Perkins, 2005; Philo andWilbert, 2000; Philo and Wolch, 1998; Wolch and Emel, 1998; Wolch, 2002), that hashelped to inform this research. Underpinning much of this literature is the notion thata moral order has long been based on powerful Cartesian binaries such as reason/nature, mind/body, and human/animal, which functions, on the one hand, to constructhumans as separate from, rather than part of, nature. Nonhuman animals, on the otherhand, become constructed as being part of nature.

What is important for the purposes of this research is that when some touristsswim with dolphins and share their spaces they feel they come to be part of nature andto `know' nature more intimately in an almost rapt state of interaction [Bulbeck (2005)and Franklin (1999); and on `out of mind' human interactions see Fabian (2000)].They then thereby recognize the need to protect `the environment' and its inhabitants.Kay Anderson (1997, page 464) notes that the domestication of animals is a processthat works

` by drawing animals into a nexus of human concern where humans and animalsbecome mutually accustomed to conditions and terms laid out by humans; wherethat which is culturally defined as nature's `wilderness' is brought in and nurtured insome guises, exploited in other guises, mythologized and aestheticized in still otherforms of this complex practice'' (emphasis in original).

Understanding tourists' embodied experiences of human ^ dolphin encountersöbothas exploited and as nurturedöcan offer insights into the potential of tourism to(re)produce nature in various ways. Tourists may exhibit ` intense experiences of imma-nence and unreflexive glee'' (Cloke and Perkins, 2005, page 903) when sharing wateryspaces with dolphins. Examining the commodified tourist experience of nature at thelevel of the body may, at the very least, offer a route for tourism studies scholars,geographers, and others to be reflective about humans and their consumption ofnature.

The work mentioned above has helped to inform this research. As we go on toillustrate, notions of sex, sexuality, bodies, nature, wildness, and domesticity are usefulfor thinking through narratives about dolphins' sexed and gendered lives.

3 MethodologyThis research draws on three methods and sets of data: (1) discourse analysis oftourism promotional materials, such as brochures, Internet sites, and advertising;(2) participant-observation on dolphin swim tours; and (3) interviews with tour oper-ators. Analysis of promotional and Internet materials provides the context for ourinterpretation of the dolphin tours themselves.

We are interested in how tourists share spaces with dolphins. Therefore, we tookpart in three dolphin swimming cruises in New Zealand.(4) Two of the New Zealandcruises were in North Island locationsöthe Huaraki Gulf and Bay of Plentyöwhilethe third was in a South Island locationöKaikoura. Tours varied in length from four(4) We also went swimming with dolphins in Hawai'i, once in a noncommercial setting and once ina pool designed for dolphins at a hotel. On the latter tour, dolphin sexuality was a theme in theguide's narrative.


to six hours. Weather and sea conditions ranged from sunny skies and flat seas tostormy skies and strong swells. The style and professionalism of the cruises contrastedmarkedly. One tour took place on an old fishing trawler captained by a man whoappeared to be reasonably indifferent to his own species but in awe of other species.The other two tours took place on larger, newer, and better equipped boats withprofessional guides. On only one of the toursöthe Kaikoura touröwas swimmingwith dolphins promoted over viewing dolphins. On the Huaraki Gulf tour we werepermitted (but not really encouraged) to swim with dolphins. We were told thatswimming with dolphins must take place on dolphins' terms, which meant that weshould not attempt to swim toward the dolphins, touch them, shout at them, etc.The dolphins would approach us if they so desired.

While on the tours, we did not pursue tourists for audiotaped interviews, althoughwe did talk informally with participants. Extensive field notes were made after eachencounter (conversations and participant observations). In accordance with the wishesof tour operators, we did not want to intrude upon or be overly disruptive to theirclients' experiences. In one instance, we undertook our research/cruise with a group ofthirty university students, who later shared their experiences with us. Unfortunately,this cruise resulted in hours spent shivering (and, in the case of many, vomiting)on deck in foul weather, and the only marine life we saw was a flock of seabirds.One student remarked ` dolphins be damned'': her meal at McDonalds shortly afterreturning to land was ` the happiest moment of her life.''

On our various excursions, guides emphasized, to different degrees, dolphin sexual-ity and maternity. Thus, we recognize significant differences between tours and touroperators' foci. For example, Dolphin Encounter in Kaikoura sold swimming withdolphins and delivered. The quality of this tour and the experience of swimmingwith a pod of forty ^ fifty Dusky Dolphins, and the tour's reflexive framing of dolphinsexuality, made even cynical academics stall momentarily. In spite of discontinuitiesamongst tour operators' narratives of dolphin sexuality, there remain importantcontinuities in the dominant narratives of dolphins.

We do not make claims to representativeness since data, although in-depth, werecollected from only a reasonably small number of participants. The complexities ofgaining evidence' at whale and dolphin ecotourism ventures have been noted elsewhere(Cloke and Perkins, 2005). The discourses contained within the data we collected areembedded with a wider social, cultural context. In order to argue that they are `repre-sentative', further data would need to be collected and analyzed. Nor do we assertthat the themes discussed in this paper exist everywhere. Swimming with dolphins, andbeing a tourist on a dolphin cruise, is different in different locations.

The presence of the two somewhat conflicting narratives of dolphins as sexy beastsand devoted mums and the differences in the (re)presentation of these themes offer aplace from which to think about the ways in which tourism providers produce theirmain product, nature. In the next two sections we take up these two parallel discoursesof radical bodily difference and bodily sameness to suggest that dolphin swimming andviewing tours produce wild and domestic spaces of dolphins and nature. It is notsurprising that gendered and sexualized dualisms that have dogged humans and theirspaces (Cloke and Johnston, 2005) also influence the ways in which dolphins come tobe represented (Bulbeck, 2005).

4 Sexy beastsIn this section it is argued that the construction of viewing and swimming withdolphins, in part, rests on polyamorous heterosexual and homosexual discourses.It is commonplace for dolphin ecotourism operators, and for publications and Internet


sites on dolphins, to not only mention dolphin sexuality but also be explicit aboutdolphin sexual activity. Consider the following excerpt from the Internet site of DolphinEncounter, Kaikoura, New Zealand:

`Mating of dusky dolphins usually takes place during spring, summer and autumn,with not all mating being for reproductive purposes. A lot of mating is done purelyas a means of socialising or maybe just for pure enjoyment. Dusky dolphins do notdevelop pair bonds and their mating habits could be viewed as promiscuous, withadult males competing for mating access to females. Males will pursue the female,each male often mating several times with the same female in a matter of minutes''(http://www.dolphin.co.nz/Kaikoura/Dolphin Encounter/).

Promiscuous dolphins make this nature space `wild' and exciting. Dolphin sexualityand its diversity are part of the dolphin tourism experience. One of the possible reasonswhy ecotourism operators' emphasize dolphin sexuality and sexual activity is that sexas `other' sells. Dolphin ecotourism operators often represent dolphins as sex crazed andengaging in same-sex behaviour. One operator told us that not only do dolphins havesex up to forty times a day (or, as he put it, sex is not just for birthdays and Christmas)but also they will have sex with anyoneöthat is, both same sex and opposite sex.

In searching for contextual material in order to understand such claims, we foundnumerous Internet sites and books devoted to dolphins and sexuality, such as this one,which begins with the claim ` Flipper is bisexual'':

`The lives of male Bottlenose Dolphins are characterized by extensive bisexuality,combined with periods of exclusive homosexuality. As adolescents and youngmales, they have regular homosexual interactions in all-male groups, sometimesalternating with heterosexual activity'' (Bagemihl, 1999, page 751).

Bisexual, homosexual, and heterosexual activities become infused with notions ofgroup sex, as the following excerpt from the Internet site ` World Policy Institute:Project for Global Democracy and Human Rights'' claims:

` Spinner Dolphins, for example, participate in `wuzzles'ögroup sessions of mutualcaressing and sexual activity (both same-sex and opposite-sex). Belly-to-belly copu-lation is also the norm for both homosexual and heterosexual interactions inDolphins'' (http://www.worldpolicy.org/globalrights/sexorient/marine-gay.html).

Our experience of these narratives of nonheteronormative dolphin sexuality was thatthey were employed primarily to entertain tourists and to create nature as wild andthere was little reflection on the `naturalness' of dolphin homosexuality.(5)

The connection between dolphins, sexuality, and ecotourism is complex. Queeror polyamorous dolphin sex is represented as an amusing oddity and as outside ofso-called normative sexuality. Nonreproductive and nonheterosexual behaviour, how-ever, runs counter to ideas of nature and procreation, or, in other words, the `natural'order. Rather than saving sex for reproduction, it seems that dolphins are `playfullyerotic' and androgynous (Bryld and Lykke, 2000, page 18). For ecotourism operators toapply their own meanings to dolphins, dolphins must be sufficiently like humansto allow a sense of connection and sufficiently different to be wild and `other'.

The following `discovery' of gay dolphins by scientists attests to the notion thatheterosexuality is an imposed notion on both dolphins and humans:

(5) The connection between dolphins, sexuality, and humans is reinforced when one considersthe ways in which sex toysödildos and vibratorsöare sometimes created in the shape of dolphins(for an example of a dolphin-shaped vibrator, see http://www.dvice.co.nz/products/vibrators/pearl+%26+tickler/5756.php). We are not suggesting that dolphin swimming cruises sold or pro-moted sex toys shaped like dolphins. Rather, we draw on this material because it adds weight to thedominant sexualized discourses that link dolphins to humans.


`Brazilian scientists have observed homosexual behaviour in dolphins for the first time,contradicting the theory that animals only perform the sexual act for reproductivepurposes. ... We observed male and female dolphins practising homosexuality,said the director of the project, Jose Martins. This discovery could force socialscientists to reconsider existing theories about homosexuality in human beings''(http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/07/13/10140.html).

These ideas, we argue, become threaded into the relations of not only humans anddolphins but also sexualized understandings of nature as wild.

Narratives of homosexual dolphin sexuality provide a way of understanding thediscursive contradictions that make up the embodied encounter of swimming withdolphins. Dolphins have a reputation for being sexually promiscuous not only with eachother, but also with humans. Bulbeck (2005) points out in her research on dolphin ^human encounters that there are stories of dolphins that fall in love with people. Sheinterviewed several people who had close contact with dolphins. One of her participants,Mike, spoke of his relationship with `Jock':

` I used to spend hours and hours and hours near him, but he wouldn't let anybodyget too close. Eventually he kind of got accustomed to me and it got to the stagewhere I'd give him hugs and we had a very, very close relationship ... . It's still oneof the most significant experiences of my life'' (page 104).Getting close to and hugging dolphins is one of the normative human ^ dolphin

interspecies experiences that reinforce dolphins as kind gentle and playful. There arethree famous `social' dolphins in New Zealand known for becoming accustomed tohuman presenceö`Pelorus Jack' in the Marlborough Sounds in the 19th century, `Opo'in Opononi, and `Horace' in Napier in the 1950s. Regular social interaction betweenhumans and a single friendly dolphin is not particularly unusual (Orams and Hill,1998).(6)

Jane Desmond states that, in the United States, ` selling nature is big business'' and that` animal tourism, sells an experience of the natural through an exposure to `wild' animals''(1995, page 217). She suggests that `wild' animal shows, such as those where killer whalesand dolphins perform for audiences (for example, SeaWorld, Marine Land-Africa USA),rely heavily on tropes of the familial, whereby human and nonhuman animals are seento share common characteristics such as child rearing. Much is made of the waysthat humans and marine mammals both ` bear, nurse, and raise young as we [humananimals] do, breathe the same air as we do, their warm-blooded bodies covered withsmooth skin just like ours'' (1995, page 223). Marine shows emphasize similaritiesbetween humans and marine mammals, attempting to transcend the divide betweenthem, and between culture and nature to simulate nature more effectively for viewers.

To conclude this section, sex, and talk of sex, sells. Titillating narratives aboutdolphins' polymorphous sexuality and sex lives are told to those who are assumed to

(6) Bulbeck (2005, page 105) notes that ` `sociable' may not always be the adjective for thesedolphins' behaviour ... . `Horace' was known to `roughhouse' with swimmers in Napier. `Percy'pushed swimmers out to sea and prevented them from returning, smashed surfboards and injuredpeople as well as making sexual overtures''. It is interesting, but perhaps not surprising, that noneof the tour operators mentioned dolphins engaging in these kinds of behaviours. Nor did theymention dolphins that `rape' other dolphins and humans (Caldwell and Caldwell, 1966, page 81) orengage in necrophilia (page 773). Bulbeck (2005, page 117) claims that ``dorsal fins, beaks andpenises are inserted into vulva, genital slits or anuses in various combinations of make to femalepartners, including incestuous copulations between young males and their mothers.'' Dolphins'proclivity for sex also extends to male gangs that may kidnap a female dolphin and hold herprisoner for a month or more, with the males mating with her sometimes simultaneously (Connoret al, 1999; Douglas, 1999). These sexual discourses, which portray violence rather than wildness,were noticeably absent from our dolphin swimming cruises.


be normative, heterosexual tourists. However, as much as talk of sex enhances theexperience, the possibility of actually being in the spaces of these highly sexualizednonhumans offers tourists the potential of an òther' interspecies embodied experience,as well as the chance to interact in a `different' sexualized space. The narratives ofdolphins' diverse sexualities are a crucial discourse employed by dolphin cruise oper-ators. These sexualized narratives sell the notion of dolphins and the spaces of dolphinsas wild and exotic. However, to end the story here would be premature. As we havealready indicated, sexualized narratives of wild dolphins and wild spaces are temperedby more normative discourses of dolphins as devoted mums.

5 D evoted mums: dolphin spaces of (re)production`The calf is born under water. Usually, the calf is born tail first ... . At the onset ofbirth, the female can be seen flexing her body in contractions. During thesecontractions, milk can be ejected from her nipples, which are located left and rightof the genital opening annex birth canal. Next the calf 's tail becomes visible.The mother may swim around with the tiny tail protruding for some time. Nextthe rest of calf 's body emerges and when the calf emerges completely, the umbilicalcord is severed.''

(http://www.sarkanniemi.fi/oppimateriaali/dolphin reprod.html)

This account of dolphin birth was downloaded from one of hundreds of Internet siteson dolphin mating, pregnancy, birthing, nursing, and care of calves.

Dolphins are commonly represented by ecotourism operators and others as beingengaged in reproductive activities and as being devoted mumsöa discourse thatpowerfully anthropomorphizes dolphins. For example, an Internet site on AtlanticBottlenose Dolphin maternity discusses pregnancy, babies (not calves), nursing, baby-sitting, amorous activities, and mothering styles (http://dolphins.org/Learn/lmm-mtrn.htm).Another site entitled `dolphinlovers.com' offers the following account of maternity.

À young mother named Cleo cuddles her young son, Rio, by her side. She isnestling and reassuring him after the local bully decided to pick a fight. Being amother, and doing as mothers do, she quickly moved to her son's aid and defendedhim. Mothers will be mothers. They love their children, try and teach them well,and will put themselves in harm's way to protect their beloved offspring. There isone major difference between Cleo and other mothers; Cleo lives in the AtlanticOcean. She is a dolphin'' (http://www.dolphinlovers.com/dolphin-mother.php).

The anthropomorphism of dolphins was also evident in the visitors' book on theAuckland Dolphin Explorer tour (figure 1). One of the visitors described the dolphinsas ` fun'', and ` cool''; another described ` the baby ones'' as ` soooo cute.''

In New Zealand and elsewhere there are schemes to àdopt a dolphin' (figure 2).People are encouraged to ` help save the lives of dolphins by becoming a dolphinsponsor today. You'll receive your very own dolphin adoption kit including an adorableplush dolphin, and a year's subscription to Defenders, our award-winning quarterlymagazine'' (http://www.defenders.org/adopt/dolphin/). On two of three of our excursionsto view dolphins we were provided with pamphlets offering information on adopting adolphin. Some schemes such as the Auckland-based Whale and Dolphin AdoptionProject offered a photograph of your chosen dolphin. Soft cuddly dolphins, adoptingdolphins, dolphin photographs, naming dolphins, and narratives about dolphin mothersand sons anthropomorphize them as a strategy to encourage people to preserve marineenvironments.

The discourse of reproductive ^maternal dolphins constructed by tour operators isunderpinned by a desire to protect and increase dolphin populations. Calves representthe continuation of the species but also the continuation of tourist dollars (some of


which maybe returned to scientific research). Dolphin ecotourism promoters have avested interest in selling the idea that nature needs to be protected from potential harmsuch as tuna nets and pollution. Maternal dolphins and calves (like pregnant womenand babies) are seen as inherently weaker than other dolphins and therefore worthy ofprotection.

This discourse of vulnerability is reproduced on the Dolphin Explorer tour fromAuckland by way of tourists not being permitted to swim with dolphins if dolphin

Figure 1. `Babies' (source: authors).

Figure 2. Adoption book (source: authors).


calves are present.We were told that swimming with mothers and calves could endangerthe lives of the calves because they need to suckle up to twenty times an hour and cannotrisk being separated from their mothers for any length of time. This point was drivenhome at numerous points in the guide's presentation during our tour, although we werenevertheless allowed into the water with dolphins towards the end of the tour.(7)

While the discourse of dolphins as sexy beasts and devoted mums may in somerespects appear to be oppositional, in one respect at least they appear similar: namely,both represent dolphins as being part of nature. The discourse of dolphins as promis-cuous represents dolphins as part of `wild nature'. The discourse of dolphins as devotedmums represents dolphins as part of `domestic nature'. Maternal bodies (human andnonhuman) have long been deemed to belong to the category of nature but nature thatis tamed and domesticated. The natural (and `normal') female human and nonhumanbody is widely considered to be one that bears offspring. In relation to humans, womenare expected to experience their bodies as childbearing bodies. In the natural sciences,being a woman is equated with bearing children and being a mother (Cameronand Costello, 1994, page 4). Because the majority of women, at a specific life stage,have the capacity to bear children, it is assumed that all women want to, and should,bear children. Maternity is produced discursively as natural (see Longhurst, 2001,pages 2 ^ 10). No bodiesöincluding maternal dolphin bodiesöcan ever be fullyextracted from culture; they are always already socially and politically coded througha range of competing discourses. Domesticated nature and maternity are produceddiscursively, used in the pursuit of tourist dollars and government control over marineresources.

Earlier in this paper we discussed how some tourists seek an opportunity for aninterspecies connection. Dolphins per se, especially swimming with dolphins in theirhabitat, offer opportunities for interspecies interactions, and maternity is seen tocement this bond even more strongly. Images of nature and connectivity (Elvey, 2003,page 199) that surround dolphins and swimming with dolphins are reinforced throughdiscourses of dolphin maternities. Anne Elvey (2003, page 199) explains that in JudithWright's poem ` Women to Child'', ` the pregnant body intersects with earth in a play ofcosmic imagery which expresses the interconnectedness of all beings.'' An Internet siteentitled `dolphinlovers.com' claims:

` Just as ape, chimpanzee, cat, dog, and human mothers, dolphin mothers love,care, teach, discipline and protect their young. Motherhood is an instinct thatis apparent in numerous species. Being a mother takes patience, time andunderstanding. Whether on land, or at sea, motherhood knows no boundaries''(http://www.dolphinlovers.com/dolphin-mother.php).An Auckland tour operator suggested that an `intimate' connection may be possible

between pregnant humans and maternal dolphins, while the Kaikoura operator dis-agreed, saying that she had seen no evidence to support the notion of maternalconnectivity between potential human and dolphin mothers. Kathryn was pregnanton the Dolphin Encounter tour that operates out of Kaikoura, and in an interviewafter the tour the guide said:

Guide: ` You do, you get a lot of people going out with, all these things thatthey've heard you know, dolphins rescue people, pregnant women get treatedspecial by dolphins.''Kathryn: ` Yes I've heard that one ...''

(7) Tour operators must comply with New Zealand Government regulations, under the NewZealand Marine Mammals Protection Regulations (1992), which governs the manner in whichboat skippers must approach with caution any pod of dolphins that includes mothers and calves(on `staging the performance' of marine mamals see Cloke and Perkins, 2005, page 912).


Guide: ` ... Yes, so you do get those sorts of things you know and the thing like,even actually one of our new guides, Fiona who was on [our tour and said], `ohI didn't realise that woman [Kathryn] was pregnant oh I would have watched'I'd love to see it.' Like, no, Fiona, it doesn't matter they're not going to treat herany different. You know, if those dolphins are in a great mood, probably every-one's going to have a great swim. The only people that we see that are regularlyshown preference are good swimmers, and that's all it is ... I've certainly heardof, just anecdotal evidence really of particularly Bottlenose Dolphins seeming torespond to people different when they're pregnant but we've never seen it at allwith Duskies.''

According to a website on ` Dolphin Close Encounters'' scientists have tried to under-stand why some dolphins seem extremely attracted to pregnant women that visit thebeach (see http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/dolphins/sea.html).

The New Zealand Dolphin Seafaris company advertises that for ` expectant/pregnant mothers ... swimming with wild dolphins can be an experience neverforgotten'' (http://www.nzdolphin.com/index.php?mothers&pid=swim%20with%20dolphins).Dolphins, they note:

` can sense via their sonar the extra heartbeat of an unborn child, and are moreinquisitive than usual and want to interact more under these circumstances. All ofour expectant mums in the past that have had the privilege to get this specialattention from the dolphins, have said that the experience and connection withthese beautiful creatures will stay with them forever!'' (http://www.nzdolphin.com/index.php?mothers&pid=swim%20with%20dolphins).Regardless of whether it is possible for maternal women and dolphins to connect,

the fact remains that maternitiesöhuman and nonhumanöare an important partof the discourse on human ^ dolphin encounters because the promise of interspeciesconnectivity cements the apparent bonds between humans and (domestic) nature.

6 ConclusionIn this paper we have tracked two different but related discourses of sexualityödolphins as sexy beasts and as devoted mums. These sexed and gendered narrativesproduce a construction of both `wild nature' and `domesticated nature'. Both construc-tions of nature appear to exist outside of capitalism; they are, of course, deeplyimplicated within it, although the route to profit making is through the genderingand sexing of dolphins and nature.

Through our analysis, we suggest that the queering of nature in dolphin toursreveals how operators are more able to capture' the business of those tourists whoseek out difference, otherness, and `wild nature' represented in discourses of dolphinsas sexy beasts. However, to make natureöand hence ecotourist use of natureömorenatural, dolphins' common bond and heteronormativity produce `domesticated nature',represented in discourses of dolphins as devoted mums. This deft sleight of speech andmovement between seemingly paradoxical discourses enables tour operators to use sexto sell tours and to use maternity to argue for the protection and preservation ofdolphins and marine environment, while all the while ensuring future tourist dollars.The discourses of sexy beasts and devoted mums may seem contradictory, yet theynevertheless intersect, blurring the boundaries between culture/nature and human/nonhuman.

In New Zealand preserving marine environments also means enhancing tourismopportunities and maintaining the country's image as `100% pure'. Cindi Katz suggeststhat, ` a scratch almost anywhere on the transnational landscape will reveal, preserva-tion and restoration facilitate the privatization of nature and space that have become


the hallmark of global neo-liberalism'' (1998, page 58). Certainly, the New Zealandgovernment and ecotour guides' narratives of dolphin sexualities and maternitiesrepresent marine environments as spaces of both wild and domesticated nature. This helpsto promote New Zealand's growing tourism industry. Ecotourism, as a means of providingprotection for dolphins and educating tourists, establishes itself as a self-evident stewardof the environment, eliding its neoliberal means of protecting the environment throughfor-profit industries, in some small measure alleviating the government from some of theburden of environmental protection.

The elision of capitalism from ecotourism is also part and parcel of producing an`authentic' tourist experience. As Jon Goss (1999, page 154) states, this elevationof authenticity ` only reproduce[s] a realist ontology which believes in the possibility ofgenuine travel and of authentic materiality. There is no experience of the world prior tothe commerce in objects and traffic in meaning.'' Dolphin tours are constituted withinspaces of pleasure, but also within spaces of commerce.

There is considerable debate in the tourism literature as to whether alternative tourismin any of its various forms is, indeed, an alternative to more apparently destructive formsof mass tourism (for examples, see Mowforth and Munt, 1998; Place, 1998; Smith andDuffy, 2003; Smith and Eadington, 1992). Our aim in this paper is not to argue whether ornot alternative tourism is a `better' form of tourism but rather to understand more fullysome of the ways in which dolphin swimming/viewing ecotourism ventures producevarious nature through the embodied interactions between dolphins and tourists.

Ecotourism, more than other forms of tourism, requires `authentic' nature becauseit is the main product for sale. Margaret Fitzsimmons (1989, page 107) notes that the` pervasive view [is] that Nature is external and primordial ... accepting this viewunchallenged we remain subject to the mystifying power of this abstraction of Nature,blind to the substantial aspects of the real human geography of capitalism''. Nature, asecotourism produces it for tourists, overlooks the ` real human geography of capital-ism'', because it successfully elides the commodification of nature through the touristexperience. In turn, this elision does double the discursive work and produces a more` authentic experience for tourists, particularly in New Zealand'' (Ateljevic, 2001).Ecotourism, including dolphin tours, justifies itself as a self-evident `good' because itpreserves nature by providing a `real' experience.

While minimizing environmental damage done by tourism through small-scalenature-based tourism and educating tourists about nature are laudable goals, ecotour-ism as a whole has not had to reckon with its own politics. As Rosaleen Duffy states,` ecotourism is often presented as a politically neutral form of development that ensuresconservation of natural resources'' (2003, page 1). Moreover, some ecotourism oper-ators engage in the hard work of cleaning up after industrial environmental destruction.Like Duffy, we are interested in the absentee politics of ecotourism, and agree with herassessment that preservation of nature is presented as a self-evident good on the dolphintours and that human animals must do all they can to develop an ethics of care fornature. However, and adding to Duffy's assessment of ecotourism, we suggest thatthe nature these ventures sell requires significant discursive work to shape its productas `wild' and/or `domesticated'.

In conclusion, dolphin swimming excursions in the open ocean or in bays aroundNew Zealand rely on many of tropes of sexy beasts and devoted mums, of wild natureand domesticated nature. Dolphins are made to seem wilder through depictions of theirsexual promiscuity. In this way, narratives of differenceödolphin same-sex and opposite-sex promiscuityöoccur in tandem with narratives of samenessödolphins as devotedmumsöreflecting one of the central paradoxes of the tourist experience: That is, althoughtourists seek out other' bodies to view and other' spaces to visit, they rarely stray too


far from `home', remaining moored to their predominantly heteronormative humanidentities. Thus, promiscuous and polymorphous sexuality and maternity work effectivelytogether in this discursive framework of difference and sameness to sell a productöadiversified natureöto help ensure the continuation not only of dolphins but also ofecotourism dollars.

Acknowledgements.We would like to acknowledge the dolphin tour operators that took part in thisresearch. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Taking Tourism to the Limits Confer-ence, University of Waikato, 8 ^ 11 December 2003, and to the Feminist Geography ReadingGroup, University of Edinburgh, 24 August 2004. Special thanks to Soile Veijola for providingastute commentary on our dolphin tourism ideas. We also appreciate the insightful comments ofthe anonymous referees. The Faculty of Arts and Social Science at the University of Waikatoprovided a research grant in 2001 for which we are grateful.

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Sexy beasts and devoted mums: narrating nature through dolphin tourism

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