Whale researchers are calling for a ban on tours allowing people to swim with whales, saying the interactions are disturbing the marine mammals on their annual migration off Australia’s east coast.

Swim-with-whales tours have been in operation in Queensland for seven years, offering patrons a chance to get up close and personal with the huge sea creatures.

They've been a major drawcard for the Fraser and Sunshine coasts, but a study by the not-for-profit Pacific Whale Foundation has found the tours are causing significant behavioural changes in humpback whales.

The foundation's chief biologist, Stephanie Stack, explained the main concerns.

"They're resting less, which is a concern for us, because Hervey Bay is supposed to be a resting area on their southern migration," Ms Stack said.

"They're spending more energy changing direction and checking out what's going on.

The researchers monitored more than 75 swim-with-whales tours and 48 whale-watching boat tours during whale-watching season from 2018 to 2020.

Their findings matched data collected on whale populations in Tonga and Western Australia in 2019.

"We need to give whales their space. We should be in a long-distance relationship with the whales," Ms Stack said.

Whale curiosity

Ed Gibson runs swim-with-whales tours from the Hervey Bay Dive Centre.

He said the whales came to the swimmers on their own terms.

"The whales are naturally inquisitive and they're curious about humans ... it's their choice," he said.

Mr Gibson said his company had strict protocols in place.

"We pull up some distance from the whale and we put our swimmers in the water on a mermaid line with very strict instructions on how they're to interact with the whale.

"They just sit in the water and the whale does the rest."

A mermaid line is a buoyed rope connecting the swimmer to the boat.

Mr Gibson said the popular tours provided a great insight into the life of a whale.

The Pacific Whale Foundation operates its own whale-watching boat tours.

Tourism drawcard

Queensland became the first Australian state to allow people to swim with humpback whales, softening otherwise strict regulations, as part of a three-year trial starting in 2014.

In 2017, the Queensland government approved the tours as a permanent commercial activity in Hervey Bay, the world's first Whale Heritage Site.

It has since given approval for tour operators to run similar experiences out of Mooloolaba on the state's Sunshine Coast.

Ms Stack said the Hervey Bay trial did not measure how the activity impacted the whales, prompting the Pacific Whale Foundation to launch its own research in 2018.

Since permission was first given for Hervey Bay swim-with-whales tours, there are now seven operators offering such experiences in the Great Sandy Marine Park as well as others off Cairns offering dwarf minke whale experiences.

A Queensland Department of Environment and Science spokesperson said operators were "governed by the whale-watching industry's code of practice for whale welfare and conservation, and any encounters must be on the whales' terms".

"Under the Nature Conservation (Animals) Regulation 2020 Section 284, swimmers can't enter the water within 100 metres of a whale, which is a national standard," the spokesperson said.

Mr Gibson said there was no need to stop swim-with-whales tours, but that regulation was critical.

“You must understand the behaviour of the animal before you put people in the water,” he said.

Ms Stack said that education and enforcement were key to minimising the impacts on the whale population.

"We have to make sure the tourism industry in Hervey Bay is sustainable. It's so important for the whales," she said.