The warm waters off the coast of Brazil are the largest breeding ground for Southern Atlantic humpbacks.
Female humpback whales off the coast of Brazil now have their pick of mates, who slap the water with their tails and jostle for attention—a scene that would have been unthinkable a few decades ago.
Driven to near extinction in the 1980s, there are now about 35,000 humpback whales in the South Atlantic, almost half of the world's total.
The warm waters off the coast of Brazil are the largest breeding ground for South Atlantic humpbacks. Males compete for the chance to mate, and females give birth and nurse their calves.
They also offer a bonanza to scientists who come each year to the Abrolhos archipelago off the coast of the state of Bahia to record and study hundreds of the cetaceans.
