Humpbacks off threatened list
They were hunted to the brink of extinction, but now humpback whales have been removed from the Australian federal government’s threatened species list.
The species is making a miraculous comeback, with populations of west coast and east coast humpback whales likely to be rebounding to near prewhaling levels.
‘‘At the height of the global whaling industry, there were as few as 1500 humpback whales in Australian waters. Today, that population is believed to be as many as 40,000 individuals and growing,’’ said Environment Minister Sussan Ley.
Humpback whales are 12 to 16 metres long and weigh up to 30 tonnes. In a normal year, May marks the start of the Australian whale-watching season, as east Australian humpbacks migrate from Antarctica to give birth in the Great Barrier Reef.
The decision to remove the humpback whale from the threatened species list followed a public consultation process and detailed assessment by the independent Threatened Species Scientific Committee.
Humpbacks are a rare success
story for global conservation. Commercial whaling ceased in 1963, after global populations had been decimated. But the species was afforded global protections from 1965, and is now growing across its ranges. Ley said Australia would continue to maintain the global moratorium on commercial whaling.
The government is considering a long-term monitoring programme for humpbacks to ensure the population remains stable into the future.
Last year, giant whale pods were spotted off the Australian coast on a scale never recorded before. The mammals were also filmed using bubbles to stun or corral their prey, the first time such behaviour had been documented in Australian coastal waters.