The global lockdown to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic health risks has altered human interactions with nature. Here, we report immediate impacts of changes in human activities on wildlife and environmental threats during the early lockdown months of 2020, based on 877 qualitative reports and 332 quantitative assessments from different studies. Hundreds of reports of unusual species observations from around the world suggest that animals quickly responded to the reductions in human presence. However, negative effects of lockdown on conservation also emerged, as confinement resulted in some park officials being unable to perform conservation, restoration and enforcement tasks, resulting in local increases in illegal activities such as hunting. Overall, there is a complex mixture of positive and negative effects of the pandemic lockdown on nature, all of which have the potential to lead to cascading responses which in turn impact wildlife and nature conservation. While the net effect of the lockdown will need to be assessed over years as data becomes available and persistent effects emerge, immediate responses were detected across the world. Thus, initial qualitative and quantitative data arising from this serendipitous global quasi-experimental perturbation highlights the dual role that humans play in threatening and protecting species and ecosystems. Pathways to favorably tilt this delicate balance include reducing impacts and increasing conservation effectiveness.

In the context of a changing climate, understanding the environmental drivers of marine megafauna distribution is important for conservation success. The extent of humpback whale breeding habitats and the impact of temperature variation on their availability are both unknown. We used 19 years of dedicated survey data from seven countries and territories of Oceania (1,376 survey days), to investigate humpback whale breeding habitat diversity and adaptability to climate change. At a fine scale (1 km resolution), seabed topography was identified as an important influence on humpback whale distribution. The shallowest waters close to shore or in lagoons were favored, although humpback whales also showed flexible habitat use patterns with respect to shallow offshore features such as seamounts. At a coarse scale (1° resolution), humpback whale breeding habitats in Oceania spanned a thermal range of 22.3–27.8°C in August, with interannual variation up to 2.0°C. Within this range, both fine and coarse scale analyses of humpback whale distribution suggested local responses to temperature. Notably, the most detailed dataset was available from New Caledonia (774 survey days, 1996–2017), where encounter rates showed a negative relationship to sea surface temperature, but were not related to the El Niño Southern Oscillation or the Antarctic Oscillation from previous summer, a proxy for feeding conditions that may impact breeding patterns. Many breeding sites that are currently occupied are predicted to become unsuitably warm for this species (>28°C) by the end of the 21st century. Based on modeled ecological relationships, there are suitable habitats for relocation in archipelagos and seamounts of southern Oceania. Although distribution shifts might be restrained by philopatry, the apparent plasticity of humpback whale habitat use patterns and the extent of suitable habitats support an adaptive capacity to ocean warming in Oceania breeding grounds.

Whale-watching activities provide important socio-economic benefits for local communities and constitute powerful platforms incentive for marine mammals protection or more broadly marine environments. However, these activities can cause adverse effects on targeted populations, with considerable downside associated risks of injuries and fatality for whale-watchers during in-water interactions. France with its overseas territories has the second largest exclusive economic zone, in which more than half of existing cetacean species are encountered. In these territories, recreational and commercial whale-watching, including swim-with cetacean activities, have recently developed. Yet, few studies focused on these activities and their associated impacts across French territories, leading to an unclear assessment of the situation. To address this issue, we reviewed cetaceans occurrence within the French EEZ, whale-watching industry, targeted species, local management of marine mammal-based tourism activities and regulations in France Mainland and some overseas territories (Reunion Island, Mayotte and French Polynesia). Forty eight species are encountered in the French EEZ, and 15 are targeted by whale-watching activities. A total of 185 operators, including 34% offering swim-with cetaceans tours, offered trips in France and overseas in 2019. While several more or less restrictive regulations exist locally, our results indicate that French’s national legal framework for marine mammals protection remains inadequate and insufficient to cope with the recent development of this activity. As conservation biologists, managers and stakeholders from these French territories, we cooperated to provide general guidelines for a sustainable development of whale-watching at national scale. We urge (1) to legally acknowledge and regulate whale-watching commercial activities; (2) to create a national legal framework regarding whale-watching and swim-with marine mammals practices, while accounting for local distinctiveness and disparities across regions; (3) to conduct more research to evaluate local short and long-term impacts on targeted marine mammals populations as well as the socio-economic benefits ; 4) to reinforce synergetic relations between the different stakeholders.

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