By Caitlin Fitzsimmons
Publication Date: 2026-04-08 19:00:00
The first whales have already been spotted off the coast of Sydney, swimming north for the winter. Some maritime operations are relying on artificial intelligence to curb one of the deadliest direct threats to marine mammals – boat strikes.
humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) have made an extraordinary comeback after industrial whaling pushed the species to the brink of extinction last century, but there is evidence that migration is starting earlier or at least becoming less predictable.
The population of humpback whales on Australia’s east coast now exceeds 50,000 – 20,000 more than pre-whaling estimates in the 20th century, federal government marine scientists said in a report last year. In the 1960s, after decades of whaling, there were just 300-500…
