Western Australia's whale watching season is set to kick off amid a cloud of uncertainty for cruise boat operators hamstrung by coronavirus-imposed restrictions on passenger numbers.
Already, the global pandemic has scuttled an annual festival celebrating the arrival of humpbacks off the coast of Augusta in WA's south west, due to restrictions on large gatherings.
Cruise boat operators typically set up operations in the quaint coastal town late May, but two of the state's largest operations were adopting a wait-and-see approach before navigating south from harbours.
Gemma Sharp, manager of Whale Watch WA, captains a vessel capable of carrying 50-60 passengers, but under the current social distancing regulations that would be limited to 20.
"It's an interesting situation and going forward those regulations may or may not change," Ms Sharp said.
"It [restricted passenger numbers] is something overall for tourism, which is a real struggle because you do need minimum numbers to make things viable."
Naturaliste Charters owner Paul Cross said he had already navigated his boat from Perth to Dunsborough ahead of a final run to Augusta, where he will set up operations for the season.
He said the "figures" were concerning.
"At the moment the amount of passengers that we are allowed to have on our vessels is borderline feasible cost-wise," Mr Cross said.
"It's going to be a real suck it and see situation and we'll be monitoring it closely."
Both will be without international and eastern states tourists and intrastate visitation with be limited to guests from Perth, Peel and Wheatbelt regions.
Augusta business owner David Marshall said international guests in particular would be sorely missed by local businesses.
"Being a tourist town, we do rely on those international guests to get us through winter," Mr Marshall said.
"50 per cent of our customers over winter are tourists, 40 per cent of those are international and the remainder are from eastern states. We are hopeful though that WA residents will travel down here to support not just us, but all the businesses in town."
