And the humpbacks aren't singing for Howard, if you catch my drift. A Gathering of Humpbacks A research biologist with the American Museum of Natural History, Howard first visited these waters in 1996, hoping to find a few humpbacks. Ten or so would have made him very happy, he says. A finding of 250 humpbacks in two seasons could translate to 250 whales migrating off the coast of Madagascar. Howard suspects this is one of the more significant humpback populations in the Southern Hemisphere and, possibly, worldwide.
Humpbacks still inhabit all of the world's oceans.
Last century, an estimated 100,000 humpbacks populated the oceans south of the equator alone. Today, scientists think that only about 25,000 humpbacks survive anywhere on the planet. Humpbacks, which are on the U.S. Endangered Species List, barely survived an insatiable whaling industry over the past two centuries. Even today, despite the banning of commercial whaling, the recovery is slow. Taking a Long, Close Look Howard's to-do list here on Antongil Bay in the Indian Ocean includes everything from recording enigmatic humpback songs to extracting DNA from tissue samples retrieved with crossbow and biopsy darts.