AT THIS time of year, Terry Cox and the divers of the Mackay Diving Club can often hear whale singing in the distance as they migrate north.

But at the weekend some members of the club were waiting to be picked up by the boat after a drift dive west of Wigton Island when a humpback whale suddenly appeared right in front of them.

A dive instructor and veteran Mackay diver, Mr Cox said it was the closest encounter he had had in a long time.

"Sometimes we will be diving at 20m and we will have whales passing over the top on the surface," he said.

"You can hear them all the time.

"The experience was much more awesome than it shows in the video."

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The divers noticed the massive animal long before it approached.

"We noticed it about 100m away and it just kept coming and coming," Mr Cox said.

"Until the point that we had to swim away."

The whale was about 10m long and was travelling with a calf.

It was the first time Mr Cox had been able to dive at Wigton Island and the channel between St Bees and Keswick islands since Tropical Cyclone Debbie.

"Some have told me that every bit of high coral had broken off and a lot of soft coral had washed up on the beaches," he said.

"But thankfully, it wasn't as bad as I expected."