Crossing Borders
These voluntary guidelines are trans-boundary; meaning that they are used to regulate behaviour in the shared waters of both Canada and in the United States.
Parallel viewing sequence
When approaching vessels already engaged in viewing a whale or group of whales, the vessel operator must ensure his vessel moves to the outside of the vessels already accompanying these whales, and head in a direction parallel to the direction these whales are traveling. This is meant to maintain existing view angles of all vessels previously on scene.
Vessels should maintain heading and speed equal to the whales at all times while paralleling.
Minimum approach distances should be maintained as follows; US: 200 yards from all killer whales, 100 yards from all other whales. Canada: 200 meters from all killer whales, 100 meters from all other whales. An additional buffer should be added, depending on behaviour, especially when viewing at 100 yards/meters.
A vessel’s speed should be the same as the whale’s speed or slower. However, when traveling slower than the speed of the whales, a vessel relinquishes its priority sequence. This technique is generally used to disengage the vicinity of whales when the intention is to break away and return to port. When leading a group of paralleling vessels engaged in viewing whales, that vessel should keep pace with whales as to not block any vessels behind them. Furthermore, that vessel should not shut down without adequate notice to the vessels following behind.
Driver etiquette
Every PWWA driver will always operate in a manner respectful of other vessels and their passengers.
Captain certification
To maintain PWWA captain certification, all PWWA drivers must complete required training once per season.