Good News Stories about Whale Populations

Commercial whaling, which took place over centuries, had a devastating impact on whale populations globally. Some species nearly went extinct and it is only since the International Whaling Commission’s moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986 that we have seen whale species begin to build back their numbers.  

We’re by no means out of the woods as whales face an increasing range of threats. These include ship strikes, entanglement in fishing gear, climate change, environmental and noise pollution, and reduction in their food sources. There’s a huge amount of work still to be done to protect these amazing animals.  

But in recent times, there have been several good news stories about whale population increases around the world – always a good thing in our book! Read on to find out more.

The Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust has run a 20-year monitoring programme in the waters off Scotland’s west coast. This area is an important habitat for whales, dolphins and harbour porpoises as well as the globally endangered basking shark (the world’s second largest fish).  

Sighting rates of minke whales increased to 1.57 per 100 kilometres in the 2023 monitoring programme, the highest in the two decades of records. In total, 167 minke whales were observed during the year.  

An interesting feature of the programme is that when sighting rates for minke whales are high, they are low for basking sharks and vice versa. It’s thought there may be a possible association between these two species that causes this. In 2023, the rates for basking sharks fell to 0.07 sightings per 100 kilometres, the lowest recorded by the Trust since it began monitoring.  

The charity says the reasons for the changes – and possible association – aren’t yet known and more work is needed to investigate potential causes.  

These magnificent whales were heavily targeted and hunted by whalers. By 1986, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species had humpback whales designated as ‘Globally Endangered’. They are now listed as ‘Least Concern’ with population trend increasing.  

Thankfully, international restrictions on commercial whaling have allowed humpback whale populations to bounce back. A recent International Whaling Commission assessment of southern hemisphere humpbacks estimated that overall numbers were at around 70 per cent of the number of whales thought to live in that region before hunting began.  

Humpback whales in the southern hemisphere spend part of their year feeding at the Antarctic and then swim to warmer waters off the coasts of countries such as Brazil and Australia, where they mate.

Rio de Janeiro is one of the sighting points for the humpbacks on their migration back north. The number of whales being spotted is on the increase, along with more whale watching companies coming into operation.  

Find out more in this article, Humpback Whales Majestic Comeback in Rio de Janeiro.  

In Australia, experts say that the humpback population on the east coast of the country has reached record numbers.  

Wally Franklin from the Oceania Project has said, “We know that population has reached 40,000 or more. We believe the numbers are now getting close to what we call carrying capacity, when the number of whales born equals the number of whales that die of natural causes each year.” 

A new study on sperm whales off the Irish coast has found females and their calves are swimming in higher latitudes than before. In the past, only male whales were found off Ireland with just one ‘stray’ female recorded in Irish waters by commercial whalers in 1910.  

The research, from the Marine and Freshwater Research Centre in Atlantic Technological University, shows female and young sperm whales off Ireland have increased over the past decade.  

The activity of the deep-diving whales was followed from their traditional breeding grounds near the Azores, in the middle of the Atlantic, to where male sperm whales traditionally feed in Norway.  

The reasons why there are more sperm whales being spotted at higher latitudes are not confirmed but may be linked to climate change.  

Sperm whales, which are the largest of the toothed whales, were heavily hunted during the commercial whaling period. They went from a population of 1.1 million globally to an estimated 360,000 today.

Antarctic blue whales paid a heavy toll under commercial whaling – only a few hundred were left after centuries of being hunted.  

But new research by Australian scientists and international colleagues suggests that the population is recovering.  

Acoustic survey for marine mammal sounds were carried out by deploying sonobuoys along ship tracks during Antarctic voyages from 2006 to 2021. Researchers collected thousands of hours of audio, including whale song and communication. 

Over time, blue whales have been heard more and more on the recordings. This suggests that population numbers are steadily increasing.  

“When you look back to before this work was started by the Australian Antarctic Division, we really just had so few encounters with these animals – and now we can produce them on demand,” Brian Miller, the senior research scientists on the project told The Guardian.  

“We can tell you where they’re frequenting; we can tell you that we’re hearing them more often. So that’s progress.”