BUDDING media students Bailey Cullen and Finn Davis had the experience of a lifetime while on work placement at Newsport last week.

The 15-year-old Sunshine Coast pair were sent out on Calypso Reef Cruises to capture footage for their Port Douglas tourism project ‘Through the eyes of teenagers’ and got a lot more than expected.

They rubbed shoulders with the dwarf minke whales while collecting underwater footage at the Agincourt Reef in the first whale encounter  of the season.

“It was one of the coolest experiences of my life,” Bailey said.

“They were so close we could have literally reached out and touched them. We were just snorkelling and all of a sudden they appeared and everyone couldn’t believe it.”

Calypso Reef Cruises skipper Tony Jones said all 70 guests on board were able to experience the magic of swimming with the whales. 

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“It was one of those day’s where everything went right,” Jones said.

“The whales approached and everyone was able to get in the water and experience it (swimming with whales) for themselves.

“The dwarfe minke whale season has begun but no everyone is so lucky.”

The dwarf minke whales migrate more than 8000km every year to the Great Barrier Reef, near Port Douglas, for eight-weeks.

Local documentary maker and animal researcher Dr Dean Miller described them as ‘the friendliest animals on the planet’ because they seek out human contact, a phenomena that still can’t be explained.

Dr Miller has been researching the curious mammals for 15 years and spent more than 12 hours a day in the water shooting footage of them for Sir David Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef series.

Bailey and Finn can now swap stories with the Port Douglas filmmaker.