Bermuda is experiencing one of its busiest ever seasons for humpback whales according to videographer Choy Aming, who has been capturing the mammals on camera for more than ten years.

Since the season began last month, Mr Aming has seen whales come closer to shore in much larger pods.

He even had the opportunity to swim with a mother and calf for two hours.

He told The Royal Gazette: “In terms of numbers and activity, it is probably the most I have ever seen.

“I am definitely noticing a lot more whales in much bigger groups. Usually you may see a pod of 10 whales once during a season, but virtually every day this week I have seen a group of at least ten.

“On Wednesday there were 15, possibly 20 just a few miles off South Shore — the biggest group I have ever seen. It was pretty spectacular.

“I have seen lots of mothers and calves — every year we see a few. Generally the calves are very curious and we have had them swim up to the boat several times, but then the mother keeps away and it seems like she calls them back or makes a signal.

“I don’t know whale but you see the calf swimming towards the boat and then sharply turn away when the mother performs an action — you can see what’s going on. That’s the norm but this year we had one mom and calf literally cruising around the boat for the better part of two hours. I’d say that at one point it was so curious the calf swam within five feet of us to check us out.

“The mom and calf gave a really, really close pass which was amazing — we never had that before.

“If that wasn’t amazing enough, we saw two males fighting underwater because the mom and calf were with an escort and the escort had a challenger come up. It all happened below us, so it was pretty amazing.”

Mr Aming said the increase in whales was likely a result of the protection they began enjoying in the 1980s.

“A whale reproduces at about six or seven years old, so it’s taken a few generations to get a foothold and hopefully the population is now expanding,” he said. “We have given them 30 years of solid protection and we are seeing the numbers start to bounce back.

“Now they have come back, hopefully this is something we can see all the time.”

Asked whether he believed there was much left to this season, Mr Aming said: “The whale seasons are always subject to weather conditions.

“We had a decent run last week but it’s not going to be very good for the next week or so. The season is at a high point now but we have a week of bad weather rolling in, so there may not be much more time to get out and see them.”