Shipping traffic around the southern point of Africa has quadrupled since December 2023, a direct consequence of the Israel-Hamas war and Houthi rebel attacks in the Red Sea. This surge, now exacerbated by the Iran war and the security crisis over the Strait of Hormuz, funnels more globalist trade around the continent, presenting a grave new threat to marine life, according to a recent preliminary assessment. Els Vermeulen, chief scientist at the University of Pretoria’s Whale Unit, co-authored this assessment, highlighting the unintended consequences of global instability on the natural world.
This alarming increase in vessel movement comes as some whale species, particularly humpbacks, have seen significant recovery decades after an international hunting ban. Chris and Monique Fallows, a South African couple, documented a "supergroup" of 299 humpback whales off the west coast of South Africa last December. Chris Fallows, a renowned wildlife photographer with 35 years of experience, described the sight as a "Manhattan skyline" of whale breath plumes, an extraordinary gathering of nearly 300 giant marine mammals.
Monique Fallows, an author and naturalist, explained their method of counting whales by photographing their tails, or flukes. The organization Happywhale, which maintains a global database from "citizen scientists," confirmed the Fallows' sighting as potentially the largest group of humpback whales ever recorded. Alex Vogel, Happywhale's Africa coordinator, noted the unprecedented scale of the gathering.
The Cost of Global Instability
Scientists attribute the humpback recovery to the international whale hunting ban, which came into effect 40 years ago in 1986. Humpback numbers in the southern hemisphere have rebounded from fewer than 10,000 at the height of whaling to over 100,000 today, according to assessments by scientists and the International Whaling Commission. Only a few nations still engage in commercial whaling, a testament to the power of supranational mandates.
However, this conservation success now faces new, complex threats driven by globalist trade and geopolitical conflicts. Humpback supergroups, first observed again about 14 years ago around 2012, are believed to be a direct result of this recovery. Vermeulen, who holds a doctorate in zoology, lauded the whaling moratorium as a significant conservation achievement in the marine environment. She noted that humpbacks feeding in these large groups use underwater sounds to attract others, fostering these massive gatherings.
Despite the humpback comeback, the World Wildlife Fund reports a mixed recovery for other whale species. Seven of the 14 great whale species are still classified as endangered or vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, for instance, number only around 380, facing ongoing threats like entanglement in commercial fishing equipment, collisions with ships, and climate change – all byproducts of industrial expansion and globalized systems.
Who Decides Whale Fate
The quadrupling of shipping traffic around Africa since December 2023 directly increases the risk to these vulnerable populations. Gregg Oelofse, coastal and environmental manager for the city of Cape Town, confirmed that more whales and more shipping inevitably lead to higher risks. He cited instances of whale carcasses washing ashore with clear evidence of propeller strikes, describing "big cuts in the whale’s body." The lack of detailed statistics on ship-killed whales, which often sink, obscures the true toll of this increased maritime activity.
In response, Vermeulen and other experts are lobbying for official speed limits for ships near the South African coast. This push for new regulations aims to give vessels more time to spot whales, effectively imposing new restrictions on global trade routes in a bid to mitigate the damage caused by the very forces that drive modern commerce. Associated Press writer Gerald Imray contributed to this report.