07/09/2026
Your Photos Continue to Change Science
Looking back a bit, this Antarctic season was our biggest yet.
Together, our community submitted 5,126 whale encounters, identifying 2,755 individual humpback whales during the 2025/26 season alone. Since Happywhale began accepting Antarctic submissions, we've now documented more than 24,000 encounters representing over 10,000 individual humpbacks.
Those numbers aren't just statistics — they're the result of thousands of expedition staff, researchers, naturalists, photographers, and whale enthusiasts choosing to share their sightings. Together, you've created one of the world's most valuable long-term whale monitoring datasets.
This past season also took us to one of the least-studied places on Earth: the South Orkney Islands. During a collaborative expedition with Sea Shepherd Global and the University of California Santa Cruz, our team recorded more than 1,450 whales while investigating what may be one of the highest concentrations of whales anywhere in the world. The data collected there will help answer important questions about whale recovery, krill fisheries, and the future of Southern Ocean conservation.
Immediately following our South Orkney Islands voyage, based on data from our work, the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO) voted to implement a whale strike reduction measure in approximately 10,000 square kilometers of ocean around the South Orkney Islands, protecting whales from harm by ships by reducing speed to a maximum of 10 knots (~11 mph).
Help Write the Next Chapter
Behind every whale identification is a dedicated team of scientists, programmers, engineers, and data managers working to transform millions of photographs into meaningful conservation science.
Your donation helps us:
Succeed with our Gray Whale initiative and similar projects
Improve our AI-powered identification tools, and make these tools accessible to under-resourced researchers in developing countries
Support the scientists and data managers who verify every submission
Keep Happywhale free for the global community
Turn your sightings into discoveries that protect whales worldwide
If Happywhale has ever helped you identify a whale, reconnect with an old favorite, or simply deepen your appreciation for these incredible animals, we hope you'll consider supporting our work today.
There are many ways to help:
Become a monthly supporter
Adopt and name a whale
Join WhaleID
Upload your whale photographs
Share Happywhale with others
Every contribution, whether it's a photograph, a donation, or simply sharing our mission, helps ensure that every whale's story continues to be told.
Humpback whales lunge feeding in Monterey Bay, California. Photo Credit: Colleen Talty/Monterey Bay Whale Watch
Finally, we have a volunteer opportunity — we will soon begin offering multi-language support for the Happywhale website. Are you fluent in a language that Happywhale should be translated to and interested in helping with getting translations right? Please email [email protected] if you are seriously interested 🙂
Thank you for being part of this incredible community.
Warmly, The Happywhale Team
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