Whale sightings surge 40 years after global hunting ban

Four decades after nations agreed to ban commercial whaling, the world’s two largest whale species are being seen in numbers not recorded in years.

A new study released on the 40th anniversary of the 1986 whaling moratorium found a sharp increase in sightings of Antarctic blue whales and fin whales off the southern coast of Africa, with 95% of viewings for the two species occurring since 2012.”Although the total number of sightings of each subspecies was relatively low, sightings appear to be steadily increasing as these whale populations recover,” the study led by the University of Cape Town noted.

The moratorium, agreed in 1982 and implemented in 1986, halted large-scale commercial whaling that had driven many species to the brink of extinction. While Japan, Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands continue to hunt whales, the number killed globally hit a historic low in the last decade, according to figures from Our World in Data.

Researchers say the latest sightings are an encouraging sign that populations long depleted by whaling are slowly recovering.