60 years ago, there were only 1,500 humpback whales left in the waters around Australia and the species was at risk of extinction in the area.

But the protections introduced by the Australian government at the time have been so successful that there are now 40,000 humpback whales in the same water.

This allows the government to remove humpback whales from the list of endangered species in Australia. But all protective measures will still remain.

"This is not about removing safeguards for humpbacks, which are still a protected migratory species, but it is a recognition of the success of the outstanding conservation efforts that are in place", said Sussan Ley, Australia's Minister of the Environment, in a press release.

The Australian Government will also develop a new program to monitor the population of humpback whales over a longer period of time to ensure that the number of whales does not decrease in the future.

The humpback whales are also doing quite well in the rest of the world. In ten of the 14 large sea areas in which the whales live, there are viable populations. In total, there are somewhere around 120,000–150,000 humpback whales in our oceans today.

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