A spokesperson for National Parks and Wildlife Service confirmed the unavailability of a guide due unforeseen circumstances had resulted in Montague Island being closed for tours this weekend.

Charter boats are only allowed to land clients on the island when a National Parks ranger is there to greet them and guide them around the island nature reserve. 

NPWS has recently recruited new staff who will be trained to conduct Montague Island tours, this should prevent this situation arising in the future and the service apologises for any inconvenience, the spokesperson said. 

Charter operators have had to cancel several island trips this weekend. While they can still offer island circumnavigation and whale watching, up to 80 per cent who book tours apparently want to land on the island, with penguin spotting a real drawcard.

The whale watching season meanwhile is hotting up with the charter operators seeing numerous whales in the past week as the southern migration of humpback whales picks up pace.

Island Charter skipper Chris Smith and deckhand Matthew Tworkowski got some great underwater video of whales under their charter boat last weekend. “Thee humpback whales entertained us for nearly an hour, please excuse the bumpy footage all shot from the boat on pole,” Matthew posted.

Skipper Matt Batts on the Sheriff charter boat meanwhile had a great whale experience on Thursday at the island and guest Luke Twomey got some great video too.

“Awesome morning out at Montague Island...we had these two whales put on an unforgettable show....they played around the boat for 20 minutes...” Matt posted.