Whales sounded like 'herd of elephants in the jungle' 150 metres off coast

"Just before sunset there were two pods of whales heading north, and they sort of came together to form one pod and turned around to head towards Kianinny, diving down and blowing bubbles," Terry said.

"You could hear them, they just sounded like a herd of elephants the other day, just making a noise like elephants in the jungle, diving and swimming, and feeling on what I imagine was plankton or krill."

After they turned around from their northern trajectory and headed towards the shore, Terry said he knew something was on, and suggested they had been feeding on shrimp-like krill well below the surface since no bird life was present.

"It's not unusual to see humpbacks feeding in and around Tathra on their northern migration, which is pretty good, but they seem to come in bursts.

"From the 24^th to 27^th of May they were coming through in quite large numbers, but I haven't seen a whale today," he said.

As a citizen scientist for southern right whales, Terry said he thought he would head to the lookout on sunset to see if any whales were gathering, and observed them 150 metres from the base of the coast.

"I video and photograph the southern right whale and send them to scientists and they identify them, based on different markings, it's like a fingerprint, and they can identify to see if it's been located before or if it's a new one," he said.

"They're very rare around here."

Living a stone's throw from Tathra beach, Terry said he had on occasion flown his drone from his back deck - through bushland, away from houses - to meet the impressive marine mammals from the comfort of his home.

"I'll never get sick of whales."