Yes, I agree, this figure seems incredibly high. Perhaps this is partly due to the fact that all of us alive today have only ever experienced whales in their post exploitation state, thus the ‘baseline’ on which we view population sizes is skewed. 240 million is roughly the population size of humans in the United States. Considering the oceans make up 71% of the Earth’s surface, perhaps 240 million humpbacks is not such a stretch. The science seems to be indicating this, and it certainly falls in line with observations made by early whalers who often stated it would have been possible to walk for miles across the backs of whales as their numbers were so great. Wouldn’t that be a sight to see?

Thanks Gen.