{"id":735672,"date":"2026-08-12T14:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T14:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/735672\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T14:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T14:54:10","slug":"humpbacks-return-to-rio-the-whales-are-back-from-the-brink-of-extinction-but-will-tourism-help-or-hinder-whales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/735672\/","title":{"rendered":"Humpbacks return to Rio: the whales are back from the brink of extinction \u2013 but will tourism help or hinder? | Whales"},"content":{"rendered":"

The anticipation is palpable onboard the Boaventura II as the yacht sets off from Rio de Janeiro<\/a> at sunrise. Once beyond the Cagarras Islands, rocky outcrops just three miles off Ipanema beach, the group gathers at the bow and starts scanning the horizon.<\/p>\n

They do not have to wait long. \u201cEleven o\u2019clock!\u201d someone calls out, as a pod of bottlenose dolphins appears, playfully diving in and out of the water. Then, two spouts of vapour hanging in the air signal the reason for the outing: a pair of humpback whales. The majestic mammals surface to breathe with an unhurried chuff, before revealing the underside of their fluke as they dive back underwater.<\/p>\n

This is a bucket-list moment for many on the boat, heightened by the spectacular backdrop of Rio\u2019s jungle-cloaked mountains. But such a sight has become increasingly common, as Brazil\u2019s humpback whales return to the shores of the Cidade Maravilhosa (Marvellous City) during the southern hemisphere winter after making a remarkable comeback from near-extinction.<\/p>\n

This year, one whale has even been repeatedly spotted within Rio\u2019s Guanabara Bay. The sightings \u2013 at least 18 \u2013 are a first and have sparked speculation that humpbacks are returning to areas they once occupied centuries ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t put a price on this show. It\u2019s pure magic,\u201d says the yacht\u2019s skipper, Theo Andrade, co-founder of the tour agency ROC Sail. After working on whale-watching expeditions around breeding grounds farther north, Andrade started running his own outings in Rio this year.<\/p>\n

Luciane dos Santos, a 53-year-old passenger, is fascinated by the gentle giants and took a day out of her busy life running a drinks wholesaler in the hopes of catching a glimpse of them. \u201cI\u2019m amazed at how a 50-tonne animal can perform such a beautiful leap that leaves everyone spellbound,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Whalewatchers onboard the Boaventura II scan the seas for a sight of whales. Photograph: Louise Raulais\/ROC Sail<\/p>\n

She was not disappointed. \u201cI feel a sense of fullness \u2013 it\u2019s truly a gift from nature,\u201d says Dos Santos, after a morning spent admiring six humpbacks performing their aquatic ballet.<\/p>\n

Humpbacks have always travelled along the Brazilian coast between June and November as they migrate from feeding grounds around South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic to the warmer, shallower waters of the Abrolhos Bank, off Brazil\u2019s north-east coast, to breed.<\/p>\n

As elsewhere, indiscriminate hunting \u2013 recorded as early as about 1780 in Rio by the artist Leandro Joaquim, who painted scenes of whales being chased and harpooned in Guanabara Bay \u2013 had decimated the population by the time a global ban on commercial whaling took effect in 1986.<\/p>\n

Pesca da Baleia (Whaling) by Leandro Joaquim, a 18th-century Brazilian painting depicting whale hunting in Guanabara Bay. Photograph: Alamy<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the 1980s, fewer than 1,000 individuals were counted in this Brazilian group. Today, there are nearly 30,000,\u201d says Thiago Ferrari, director of the Amigos da Jubarte (Friends of the Humpback) conservation project. Other estimates put the number closer to 35,000.<\/p>\n

Brazilian waters are home to several whale species, including the once-endangered southern right whale \u2013 believed to be the species depicted in Joaquim\u2019s painting \u2013 and Bryde\u2019s whale. The 15-metre-long humpback is, however, \u201cthe star of the show\u201d due to its acrobatic performances, says Ferrari.<\/p>\n

Liliane Lodi, a marine biologist who works for the Ilhas do Rio (Islands of Rio) research project, which first registered a humpback whale in the city\u2019s waters in 2014. The number of sightings has soared since then and, with them, observation of new and different behaviours.<\/p>\n

A humpback whale\u2019s pectoral fin, seen against Rio de Janeiro\u2019s mountains. Photograph: Louise Raulais\/ROC Sail<\/p>\n

\u201cRio de Janeiro is an area of passage; it\u2019s a migration route,\u201d she says of humpbacks. \u201cHowever, we have already registered behaviour that is typical of breeding grounds, rather than passage areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

That includes spotting newborn calves, displays of competitive behaviour between males and recordings of haunting whale songs.<\/p>\n

This year, Lodi has been investigating the Guanabara Bay appearances. She concluded that they are of the same whale \u2013 a juvenile that has been living in the bay\u2019s sheltered waters since mid-June, delighting early-morning canoeists. \u201cIt\u2019s very sociable when it wants to be,\u201d says Lodi, who enlisted the help of citizen scientists to study the animal.<\/p>\n

Mariana Bueno, a researcher who accompanies ROC Sail\u2019s whalewatching trips. Photograph: Constance Malleret<\/p>\n

Such collaboration between science and leisure is one of the reasons advocates believe Rio\u2019s budding whalewatching industry can be a tool for conservation, as well as a new source of tourism revenue during the winter.<\/p>\n

Mariana Bueno is an environmental sciences student employed by ROC Sail to accompany each whalewatching outing on the Boaventura II. \u201cWhen you combine tourism and research,\u201d she says, \u201cyou have infinitely better data collection than if you weren\u2019t working together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having a researcher onboard, says Ferrari, is \u201cfundamental for healthy, sustainable and orderly whale-watching tourism\u201d. With its team of biologists, the Amigos da Jubarte non-profit environmental organisation offers free training courses in partnership with local authorities, through which they have already certified about 20 agencies for cetacean watching in Rio, including ROC Sail.<\/p>\n

Clipboard in hand, Bueno answers tourists\u2019 questions, advises the skipper to ensure that he follows best practice \u2013 such as keeping at least 100 metres from the whales and never spending more than 30 minutes near the same individuals \u2013 and writes down details of every sighting. All of the information is passed on to Amigos da Jubarte to help research.<\/p>\n

\u201cSurveying the number of individuals allows us to track population growth \u2026 and individual behaviour,\u201d says Bueno. \u201cHow they\u2019re interacting with a vessel or how curious they are about humans. These behavioural surveys then serve as the basis for formulating laws and rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while Lodi recognises tourism\u2019s contribution to research, she worries about its impact on conservation, as the trend for whale watching in Rio means more boats are clustering around the whale migration corridor just beyond the Cagarras Islands.<\/p>\n

A juvenile humpback by Ilha Fiscal in central Rio. The \u2018sociable\u2019 whale has repeatedly been sighted in Guanabara Bay. Photograph: Liliane Lodi<\/p>\n

\u201cThis population increase is a source of great happiness to us researchers. But with an increase in numbers comes an increase in [human-whale] conflicts,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cFishing, tourism, large ships, chemical pollution and noise pollution, these are all challenges [and] threats,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

Although Brazil has relatively robust laws protecting whales \u2013 swimming with them is prohibited, for example \u2013 the legislation needs updating and requires better monitoring to guarantee enforcement, she argues.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a whale, it doesn\u2019t make much difference that one operator follows best practice if the others aren\u2019t doing so,\u201d says Lodi. \u201cWe\u2019re dealing with highly intelligent animals. If they\u2019re being intensely bothered, there could be cumulative effects in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The anticipation is palpable onboard the Boaventura II as the yacht sets off from Rio de Janeiro at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":735673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-735672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}