A cruise tour company that has navigated the Tamar River for 25 years says the changes have forced them to adapt, but it has not been difficult to overcome.
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Tamar River Cruises owner Alfred Gude said his cruise boat operators had noticed changes in the sediment levels in the river, which had impeded some of their operations.
Mr Gude said since the raking had stopped, he and his cruise ship operators had noticed a deepening of the channel running through the estuary.
The raking program, which was run by the Launceston Flood Authority, stopped in 2019.
The Launceston Flood Authority was established by the City of Launceston council in 2008 under the Local Government Act.
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"While we are seeing the silt pick up again the channel is deepening and that is starting to help us," Mr Gude said.
Tamar River Cruises operates two tour boats, a small one that runs every hour, and a larger one that can be booked for private tours.
Mr Gude said the mud flats were consistently visible, particularly at low tide, but it was the channel that made the most difference.
"If they could clean up the channel a bit more, that would help us," he said.
Mr Gude said his boats often experienced difficulty at low tide in summer, when water levels were lower, because it wasn't getting the run off from the land to boost the depth.
"It can mean that sometimes we can't launch on time, or that coming back can be a bit tricky," he said.
However, a muddy river doesn't phase Mr Gude, who hails from the United Kingdom.
"We are used to having a muddy river, where I am from it's pretty common, look at the Thames," he said.
Silt and mud flats can cause havoc to the cruise boats, if it gets up into the engine, and it does cause more wear and tear on the boats, so there is a bit more maintenance.
But Mr Gude said impact of the mud on his boats was rare, it could happen, but didn't happen very often, and the maintenance impact was relatively negligible.
He said while they did sometimes get negative feedback from customers about the aesthetics of the mud flats, he was most concerned about what work could be done to deepen the channel, which would make his boat routes easier to navigate.
"We do get some negative feedback, but when we get our further and they see the other parts of the river they forget all that. I think of it as they are seeing the good, the bad and the ugly all at once."
Mr Gude said he didn't expect any significant further investment in the Tamar estuary and felt as a business owner it was their lot to adapt to any changes affecting the river.
On the river's former raking program, Mr Gude said they had seen some benefits from it, but it wouldn't work if it wasn't maintained.
The raking program was called off following a study conducted as a condition of the program's approval.
The report found the mud banks and silt was not significantly decreased, it was only moved around, and the impact on the water quality would likely have a detrimental impact on the ecosystem.
Tamar River Cruises has, like many tourism businesses, been affected by the pandemic, and was forced to shut down for six months and access the JobKeeper supplement.
One of the boats was also forced into dry dock after an incident involving a dead cow in the river, which exacerbated the problem.
However, Mr Gude said things were picking up for the operation, thanks to the support of Tasmanians and the mainland market.