From 440 to 25,000: One Humpback Whale Population's Amazing Recovery

Humpback whale populations have recovered since whaling was banned, some from near extinction. (Credit: Tomas Kotouc/Shutterstock)



In the late 1950s, only 440 humpback whales — or 1.6 percent of their onetime number — were swimming around the southwestern Atlantic Ocean. Thanks to whaling restrictions, these school bus-sized aquatic mammals have started to come back.



Now, a new paper estimates that the western South Atlantic whales have recovered even better than scientists previously th