Kayaker’s incredible up-close whale encounter at Bondi

A kayaker has had an incredible encounter with a curious humpback at Bondi, as 5000 whales were spotted off the coast in one day.

A kayaker has had an incredible encounter with a migrating humpback. Picture: Instagram.

A kayaker has had an incredible up-close encounter with a curious humpback whale that gracefully glided just metres from his boat off the coast of Bondi Beach.

Nearly 5000 humpbacks have been spotted in Aussie waters in a record-breaking annual migration, as they make a 10,000-kilometre journey from their Antarctic summer feeding grounds to winter breeding grounds farther north.

Each year, researchers and citizen scientists head to the NSW coast to conduct an annual whale count. Sunday’s census resulted in the sightings of 4792 whales — the largest migration on record.

One kayaker had a particularly surreal encounter with one of the humpbacks that was captured by a drone.

In the stunning footage, an enormous whale trailed metres from a white kayak off Bondi Beach.

“Whales are always a treat as they cruise up the coast during migration season,” Jason Iggleden, the drone pilot, told CNN.

“There’s a wondrous world in the deep blue and I have had the ability to share it with audiences … Human and sea life interactions are always so fascinating and it’s a reminder to all of us to appreciate, respect and coexist with our oceans.”

Drone Shark — an app and Instagram page that collects ocean footage from Aussie drone operators — has shared clips of dozens of whales off the NSW coast in recent days.

The incredible videos include a pair of whales breaching in succession, launching themselves out of the ocean to show their white bellies to the sky, a whale calf resting on its mother’s back during the long journey, and huge whale tails flicking into the air, sending water flying.

Whales were also seen breaching in succession. Picture: Instagram.

Another video showed a whale calf resting on its mother’s back. Picture: Instagram.

Many of the mammals were spotted less than 100 metres from shore, according to Steve Trikoulis, vice president of the Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans.

“They were travelling to Queensland and Hervey Bay to make babies,” he told CNN.

“It was exciting for people to see them … jumping around.”

The rise in whale numbers was due to better weather and cleaner water, he added.

“The numbers are healthy and have definitely increased,” Mr Trikoulis said.

“We’ve never seen so many of them so early in the season and we strongly believe it’s because of the better weather. We’ve also seen them swimming more closer to shore.”