Steve Backshall's having a whale of a time

...even if he does give our writer a fright by disappearing below the waves for several minutes WITHOUT any scuba kit. Thankfully, as the TV naturalist explains, he's trained himself to free-dive to capture some extraordinary encounters with marine mammals

- Emma Cox

I AM ON A boat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and all around me are whales and dolphins: it's impossible to know in which direction to look as the waves are a mass of flippers and tails. And yet, I'm focused on a very specific bit of water right in front of me, and starting to get a little worried.

It has, after all, been several minutes since wildlife presenter Steve Backshall dived into the water without any scuba equipment and I'm starting to question: am I going to have to break the news to the public back home that one of our most beloved national treasures has been lost at sea? 

But before full panic takes over, there he is, pulling off his goggles, beaming with delight, and telling me he's just been swimming with a female sei whale and her two calves. Never mind that, I say. How do you do that? You've been gone for ages!

Once he's had a chance to get out of his wetsuit and sit down properly with me, Backshall explains how he has trained himself to hold his breath for an incredible six minutes so he can free-dive for his new series Whale With Steve Backshall. If he used scuba gear, he explains, the bubbles produced would frighten off all the mammals.

Already super-fit, his training has paid this serious dividends. series During filmed all over the world, including here in the Azores where I am meeting him, as well as the Bahamas, California, Norway and even Britain Backshall has had the most extraordinary personal encounters with whales and dolphins, plus one meeting with an orca which he calls "the best animal encounter I've had in 25 years of filming".