'It's so chaotic': Humpback whales are forming super-groups

On a misty morning in December 2025, two photographers captured the images of 304 individual humpbacks – the highest number of large whales ever identified in a single day. Their pictures tell a story of a remarkable return from the brink.

When you have 200 humpback whales or so close to each other, says Monique Fallows, their blows appear "like a Manhattan skyscraper skyline". 

Humpbacks dive to feed then resurface for air. Bursting from their enormous lungs at over 300mph (483km/h), a humpback whale's blow can rise up to 7m (23ft) into the air. "The sound is like a big bellows," says Monique, a nature photographer and author, who has documented humpback super-groups multiple times.

The smell is also strong for anyone nearby. "You feel the breath of the whales falling on you," says Monique. "The whales burp and fart all the time – on a ginormous scale. The smell is pungent. It's very fishy."

Over two days in December 2025, Monique and her husband, fine art photographer Chris Fallows, photographed several different humpback "super-groups" off the west coast of South Africa. The couple captured 208 individual humpback whales on the 29 December, and a whopping 304 the following day. That, says Chris, is the greatest number of large whales ever identified in one day in our planet's history. 

"This truly is a testament to their recovery," says Chris.

Intense industrial whaling during the 20th Century virtually wiped humpbacks out, leaving less than 5% of pre-whaling numbers in the ocean. But 40 years ago, a global whaling moratorium came into force and populations began to recover.

Today, while some humpback populations remain endangered and for others the rate of recovery is uncertain, globally humpbacks are on the rise. In the southern hemisphere, humpbacks have shown a strong recovery, with an increase in numbers of up to 12% per year. Now, South Africa's recent humpback super-group bonanza could indicate a turning point in the resurgence of the humpback whale.

Sightings of super-groups – defined as groups of 20 or more humpback whales that are within five body-lengths of their nearest neighbour – are also skyrocketing.

Experts aren't yet sure why we're seeing this sudden surge in these gatherings. It could be a change in prey availability, or an increase in the numbers of whales elsewhere prompting exploration of new feeding strategies or areas. Or perhaps this is something they've always done, but only now are we witnessing it as populations recover.

Being surrounded by such a huge number of inconceivably large animals is "a complete sensory overload", says Monique. "They're exhaling all the time. When you first smell it, you're like 'Oh, God, what is that?'"

You can see the moment Monique and Chris Fallows met a super-group of humpbacks in the video below.

Humpbacks usually only come together in small groups to feed or mate, spending much of their lives in solitude. During the austral summer months, however, upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water from the deep ocean leads to enormous blooms of phytoplankton and the whales' favourite meal of euphausiids – or krill – follows. That's when super-groups now come to feed.

Humpback whales live in all the world's oceans. Each year, they make some of the most epic migrations of any mammal on the planet, as far as 5,000 miles (8,000km), from the warm waters of their breeding grounds to colder water where they feed. In the process they transport huge amounts of nutrients across the globe, which plays a vital role in the health of marine ecosystems. 

The recovery of humpbacks is "really the........

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