GoKawiilOn 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.