Incredible shot of whales off Hook Island

AN OCEAN Rafting Eco-host has captured possibly one of the most incredible videos of this season's whale migration off the North Queensland coast.

WHALIN' AROUND: An Ocean Rafting crew sighted nine male humpback whales off Hook Island. Picture: Ben Keam

AN OCEAN Rafting Eco-host has captured possibly one of the most incredible videos of this season's whale migration off the North Queensland coast.

Ocean Rafting crew member Ben Keam and skipper Sarah Kelleher took the footage of nine male humpback whales on an Ocean Rafting day trip north-east of Hook Island last week.

Ms Kelleher said the encounter was the largest group of whales she'd seen after 10 years on the water.

"When you see them like that they're usually heading against the current or potentially chasing a female. It's hard to know with nature,” she said.

"But it was definitely nine males doing something! We actually sat there and after they went past, another two passed afterwards, so there were about 11 whales in total. It's a pretty impressive group.

"We'd already had two close encounters with a mother, father and calf, so that day we probably had about five or six close encounters. At one stage, we didn't know where to look!”

Ms Kelleher said that the Ocean Rafting group was averaging three close whale encounters per trip.

"The warmer conditions mean that we will see more whales out on the water.”

Originally published as Incredible shot of whales off Hook Island