300 humpbacks gather off South Africa as population rebounds past 100,000

The gathering of nearly 300 humpback whales feeding off South Africa's west coast has offered scientists an extraordinary glimpse into one of the world's greatest wildlife recovery stories. According to a report by the Associated Press, the rare sighting comes decades after commercial whaling drove the species to the brink of extinction. Once reduced to fewer than 10,000 individuals worldwide, humpback whales have now rebounded to an estimated global population of more than 100,000.A rare feeding event caught on cameraMarine researchers observed nearly 300 humpback whales feeding together in waters off South Africa, making it one of the largest feeding aggregations ever recorded in the region.