The humpback whale supergroup was spotted by a nature photographer and a naturalist. Photo: AP News//Screenshot
An enormous pod of humpback whales, consisting of nearly 300 individuals, was filmed off the coast of South Africa last December. The supergroup was filmed by a South African couple.
“It was extraordinary,” said Chris Fallows, who is a fine art wildlife photographer documenting marine animals for over three decades. “Quite quickly we realized that there must be several hundred whales coming together in one particular area.”
Chris and his partner Monique, who is an author and naturalist, are used to seeing incredible things in the wild, but this might take the cake. They’ve seen plenty of groups of humpback whales off the western coast of South Africa, but when they found themselves on a boat in the middle of a seemingly endless sea of whales, even they were stunned.
Researchers are saying that it is likely an indication of how some species of whales are rebounding in the southern hemisphere after the international whale hunting ban came into effect in 1986. Humpback whales generally travel either alone or in small pods. When they are in food-rich areas, however, they have been known to gather in larger groups like the one the Fallows saw.
Chris and Monique were able to document 299 different whales in the group by taking photographs of their tail flukes. It’s a commonly used tactic to identify different whales, since each whale’s tail is like a fingerprint.
According to Els Vermeulen, the chief scientist at the University of Pretoria’s Whale Unit in South Africa, it wasn’t until about 2012 that humpback whale supergroups started to be seen again.
“In general, the moratorium on whaling can be classified as one of the strongest conservation success stories in the marine environment,” she said.
