Once hunted almost to extinction, the group of humpback whales currently migrating down Australia's east coast has bounced back — and then some.

In a preliminary report to the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, marine scientists estimate there were more than 50,000 eastern Australian humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) in 2024. Loading...

That's around 20,000 more individuals than the estimated pre-whaling population of the early 1900s.

The report, while not yet peer-reviewed, is in line with previous predictions that the eastern humpback population may peak at around 50,000 individuals in the 2020s.

Report co-author Wally Franklin, who also co-founded the Oceania Project and has studied eastern Australian humpbacks for more than 30 yea

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