Scientists say supergroup signals recovery decades after whaling ban
Chris Fallows, a wildlife photographer with 35 years of experience documenting marine animals, said he and his wife Monique had grown accustomed to seeing larger groups of humpback whales off the west coast of South Africa in recent years. But the sight that greeted them one morning last December was unlike anything they had encountered.
“It was extraordinary,” Fallows told the Associated Press. “Quite quickly we realized that there must be several hundred whales coming together in one particular area.”
The couple estimated the supergroup contained nearly 300 whales. Plumes of whale breath and spray burst into the air from blowholes, and the husband and wife found their boat amid the congregation.
Scientists say the supergroup is an indication of how humpback whale numbers have strongly rebounded in the southern hemisphere oceans decades after the international whale hunting ban came into effect in 1986. The species was heavily depleted by commercial whaling, and the sight of such a large gathering suggests that the population is recovering in the productive waters off South Africa’s west coast.
The Fallows have been documenting the increasing numbers of humpback whales in the area in recent years, but this supergroup marked a new milestone in the species’ apparent return.