There has been much talk in recent months about commercial tourist operations being given permission to operate in some of Australia’s most beautiful – and often pristine – locations.
This week, the green light was given to tours offering people the chance to swim with humpback whales in Western Australia. The trial at Coral Bay and Exmouth will begin next year following the success of a similar program with whale sharks at Ningaloo Marine Park.
A study from the University of Western Australia in 2012 found the whale shark tours contributed around $6 million to the Exmouth and Coral Bay economy annually.
Environment Minister Albert Jacob told the ABC that while humpback whales would still be specially protected under WA legislation, they were no longer considered a threatened species.
“The WA population has recovered better than any other humpback whale population in the world,” Mr Jacob said. “It’s one of the real conservation success stories of WA with the species now fully recovered.”
The whale shark season runs from April to late July, while the humpback whale season is expected to begin next August and run until the end of October. The new tours will be strictly controlled.
“Only one group will be allowed within 300 metres of a whale at any given time and the maximum size of a group will be 10,” Mr Jacob said. “With a humpback whale you’re not just swimming with an enormous majestic creature. You can also potentially have whale songs.”
He says the new tours might eventually to add similar numbers to the WA economy that the whale shark tours do, and could potentially extend the peak tourist season by three months.
We started offering “Whale Swims” last year as part of our whale watch cruises & this season saw almost 20% increase in passengers with almost 100 doing the swim option. It does bring in more tourists.