A groundbreaking study's revealed that even 50 years after the end of commercial whaling, its devastating impacts continue to shape humpback whale behaviour. Historical records show that in the waters of Oceania, which span from New Caledonia to French Polynesia, there were once more than 14,000 humpback whales. By the mid 1970s that number had plummeted to fewer than 200, bringing the species to the brink of extinction Now it's been revealed that as the population recovers, how whales' mate has been changed dynamically. Dr Emma Carroll is a molecular ecologist at the University of Auckland, she is the co-author of the research in the scientific journal Current Biology.