This most charismatic and beloved of whales was subject to centuries of intense â - and eventually illegal - hunting pressure. In the days before whaling, up to 1.5 million humpbacks roamed the worldwide oceans. In the 19th and 20th centuries, these numbers were all but wiped out by commercial whaling. Today, humpbacks are tightly protected and recovering with an estimated 80,000 worldwide, though Japan plans to resume hunting of humpbacks in the next two years.