Good news for whale lovers, as SPLASH, which stands for Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance and Status of Humpbacks, has conducted a study which demonstrated that humpback whales are more numerous now then they were in the 1990s.

In 1966 there were 1,400 humpbacks in the North Pacific, in 1991-93 there were 9,819 and between 2004 and 2006, 18,302 humpbacks were estimated to populate the Pacific Ocean.

Most of the whales feed off the coast of British Columbia, Alaska, Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.

According to Science Daily, Cascadia Research in Olympia, Washington, was the central coordinator for the SPLASH project and it matched photos from 6 different areas where whales were feeding and breeding. Thanks to this, researchers were able to determine the patterns of individual whale movements.

In addition to that, SPLASH researchers have gathered about 6,000 biopsy samples to study them and find out more about genetics and pollutants. They want to analyze the samples and determine the structure of the humpback whales population and potential menaces to the recovery of the whales.

Experts said that one of the things that helped this recovery of the humpbacks was the interdiction of hunting them. They have been protected by the International Whaling Commission since 1965 in the North Pacific and 1955 in the North Atlantic, reported CBC.ca.