What it is
The humpback is a long-finned baleen whale that migrates between polar feeding grounds and tropical breeding waters. IUCN listed it as Least Concern in 2018 after several ocean-basin recoveries. Some regional stocks remain small, including the Arabian Sea population.
Range
All oceans. Breeding and feeding sites are traditional; the species is cosmopolitan as a migrant, not as a resident of every coast.
What happened
Nineteenth- and twentieth-century commercial whaling cut most populations by more than 90 percent by the 1960s. The international moratorium on commercial whaling (International Whaling Commission, 1982, phased in) allowed many stocks to grow again. Ship strikes and fishing gear still kill animals.
When / status
Still here. Globally Least Concern; recovery is real and incomplete.
Human role
Industrial hunting caused the crash; a hunting ban, not a change of habitat, allowed the rebound.
Sources
IUCN Red List (Megaptera novaeangliae, Least Concern, 2018); IWC whaling history.