It all started with the question of a child, “Why?”The search for answers about the humpback whales that migrate past Bermuda each spring, crossing 25 degrees of latitude, from the warm waters of the Caribbean to the cold Labrador Current, is not complete. Yet the three-year quest to find out more has garnered enough answers to fill a book.Andrew Stevenson’s ‘Whalesong’ is that book.Though whales are the primary focus of Stevenson’s photography and text, the volume is as much one of self-discovery as it is of scientific discovery. “I was certainly no longer the same person,” he writes of his effort “at the leading edge of scientific discovery”.His aim was to investigate an area of the humpbacks’ life never studied before: “underwater in the middle of their migratory crossing in the heart of the ocean”.The documentary film he produced, ‘Where the Whales Sing’, has recently won the 2011 Charman Prize, in recognition of the artistic quality of the photography. The text and the images that fill the pages of the book stills from the digital film, and photographs taken by himself and others give the back-story to the film’s production.Written in an engaging style, the text describes the challenges of recording the behaviour of these immense animals in the wild not least finding them in the vast ocean. There is access to transport and the cost of equipment, the physical challenges of spending long hours in and on the water carrying heavy photographic equipment and the need for willing volunteers to act as lookouts, navigators and researchers, not to mention sponsors.Stevenson is at pains to describe the danger of swimming with animals the size of a bus. “Swimming with the whales has to be on the whales’ terms,” he points out.“I had already used up my allocated nine lives, most of them in Africa. And now I had a wife and daughter to worry about.”It is a very personal account of Stevenson’s efforts to learn more about the humpback whales’ lives, and in particular the portion of their lives spent near Bermuda. The text follows chronologically the effort to record the whales from the first disastrous 2007 season to the satisfying encounter of old friends several seasons later and screening of his film to critical acclaim. By the end he is able to offer some theories to answer his daughter’s question, “Why does a whale breach?”Vivid, detailed writing helps create a sense of what it might be like to swim with whales the awe and exhilaration. “So much larger than us,” he writes, “the humpbacks are acutely aware of their extremities and seem to go out of their way to avoid physical contact with humans.”This is particularly surprising given their size and the aggressive behaviour of males when competing for mates.There are some interesting descriptions of whale behaviour and theories about the nature of this behaviour, including the behaviour of ‘sleepers’, the role of ‘grandmothers’, social ties and group responsibility and why there are humpbacks singing 24-7 in Bermuda as late as May.The text is accompanied by many intriguing photographs, often a sequence of stills, conveying a sense of movement. Most are taken from digital film footage, but there are also photos taken by others from the craft Stevenson uses to reach the whales. The underwater photography in particular has an ethereal quality. Attractively laid out in a landscape format, the photographs and their captions invite close inspection.In all an interesting and informative companion to the award-winning film,’ Whalesong’ ($45) is available at a number of local bookstores, the Bermuda Society of Arts, Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art and the Aquarium and BUEI gift shops from the beginning of October.Special book launches will be held at the Aquarium on Wednesday October 12 and at Masterworks on October 27.