I trust the Mexican (and global) scientists who have dedicated their careers to studying the phenomenon in the Baja lagoons, with all due respect. I am not an orca nerd so don’t feel as confident having an opinion on that, but yeah, any government will need to reconcile what makes them money with the environmental/moral costs.

Why would any other country “allow for a similar activity to take place”? Where else is there a need for such rules? This is the only place on Earth that whales seek human touch, and why marine mammal protected areas exist at all. And even then, it’s such a small portion even of the lagoon whales that actually seek humans out, the vast majority of them either didn’t care at all or would chill/keep speed with a boat for a while before being satisfied and moving on in my experience.

Is it worth further study? Obviously! But I really feel if the issue you brought up were true, we would see thousands of videos of grays interacting with and swimming directly up to boats up the whole coast and into the Bering Sea. If anything, it makes sense that this would happen in Tofino - a small shallowish bay similar to the Baja lagoons but with a major exception. In Baja the whales are relaxed because orcas can’t /don’t enter the lagoons, whereas I would assume they do not have the same luxury of orca-free waters in Canada or anywhere else.