Amid the glacial seas fringing a scattering of sub-Antarctic islands, marine scientists have chronicled a phenomenon bordering on the miraculous.
Upwards of a hundred humpback whales were observed feeding shoulder to shoulder in one prodigious, densely knit assembly.
An aggregation of such magnitude had not been documented anywhere in these waters for appreciably more than a century.
Throughout the twentieth century, unchecked industrial whaling harried these leviathans to the very edge of extinction.
Only through a hard-won succession of international accords was their slaughter finally proscribed and enduring safeguards imposed.
Released from that remorseless persecution, their populations have rebounded with a vigour that has confounded even seasoned cetacean specialists.
Researchers construe this teeming feeding congregation as an authentically heartening gauge of oceanic vitality.
More than anything, it furnishes eloquent testimony that resolute stewardship can undo the depredations of generations.