Male humpback whales sing to each other, and when they do - over the course of a season - a favourite “hit song” emerges. Each whale passes it along, until all the humpback males in the Southern Ocean sing it. 

But humpback whales aren’t just amazing creatures, capable of tenderness, and rivalries. They’ve also managed one of Australia’s great comebacks - they numbered less than 100 on the east coast in the 1960s, and now there’s about 40,000 of them.

Today, environment and climate reporter Caitlin Fitzsimmons on why they’re thriving, while other whales are critically endangered. And whether new information about threats to whales might inform the government’s environmental policies.

Credit:
David Attenborough/Netflix 'Our Planet'