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Biology’s Alejandro Acevedo-Gutierrez honored for research paper 

by Kumiko Juker

WWU Communications intern

Alejandro Acevedo-Gutierrez's 2010 paper was based on research focused on how or if tourists at a site in New Zealand respected warning signs about the dangers of approaching the beach's fur seals.

WWU Biology professor Alejandro Acevedo-Gutierrez's 2010 paper, “How Effective are Posted Signs to Regulate Tourism? An Example with New Zealand Fur Seals,” has been named one of the best 25 papers published in Tourism in Marine Environments as part of the journal’s 20th anniversary. The paper went through two rounds of voting and will be republished in a special issue later this year.  

“It is humbling and rewarding to have your work appreciated by peers.  This research could not have happened without the support from Western during my professional leave,” Acevedo-Gutierrez said. 

Acevedo-Gutierrez was on professional leave from September 2008 to May 2009, carrying out the paper’s research during the Austral summer due to the influx of tourists. From the Kaikoura peninsula, Acevedo-Gutierrez and his collaborators — his wife Lisa Acevedo and a Texas A&M University student, Olga Belonovich — observed whether tourists respected the posted signs and kept their distance from the resting fur seals.

Unfortunately, their research showed that the signs were largely ineffective at deterring dangerous behavior by the human visitors and suggested that new approaches were needed.  

To learn more, the paper can be accessed via CEDAR.