We are back this month talking about some tiny very cute (just ask Nicole) dolphins – Commerson’s! Its a short and sweet one this month but full of cool facts about these little guys. Show Notes: –Commerson’s dolphin population structure: evidence for female phylopatry and male dispersal | Scientific Reports –Communication sounds of Commerson’s dolphins (Cephalorhynchus commersonii) and contextual use of vocalizations –Interspecific sexual behavior between Commerson’s and Peale’s dolphins in Patagonia, Argentina –Meredith RW et al. (2013). Rod Monochromacy and the Coevolution of Cetacean Retin
Surprise! We are back with another special episode for World Krill Day and we are thrilled to welcome Philippe and Ashlan Cousteau back to the podcast! Philippe and Ashlan join us to talk all about Krill – the superhero’s of the ocean. We chat about what’s changed since we last talked in 2023, the issues facing Krill, specifically in Antarctica, and why we should care about these tiny animals that live so far away from us – plus what we can do to help 🦐🦐 Thank you so much to Pew Charitable Trusts and Barbara Cvrkel for coordinating and making this amazing podcast happen. Show Notes: -Check o
This month on the podcast we are finally talking about Grey Whales! We talked to Dr. Clara Bird about her research on the Pacific Coast Feeding Group of Grey Whales in Oregon, Grey Whales as a whole (and the issues they are facing), and her work in photogrammetry. It’s super cool and nerdy and full of interesting whale facts – just the way we like it. Show Notes: -Find Clara on Bluesky and Instagram -Find Gemm Lab on Instagram –Back on the Water with Grey Whales –A Familiar Face
Happy Orca Action Month! We are celebrating by talking all things Killer Whale with Nancy Black from the California Killer Whale Project. We get into all the different ecotypes and populations of Orca seen in California (hint: it’s a LOT), plus Grey Whale hunts and some amazing stories from Nancy’s 35+ years studying Killer Whales in California. Show Notes: -Monterey Bay Whale Watch: gowhales.com -Instagram: Monterey_Bay_Whale_watch California Killer Whale Project: californiakllerwhaleproject.org -Instagram: californiakillerwhaleproject -Eastern Tropical Pacific Killer Whale Whale Tales: https
This month on the Whale Tales Podcast we welcomed Dr Shanan Atkins from the Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphin Conservation Network or HuDoNet. Shanan joins us to tell us all about Humpback dolphins including her work on Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphins, more on the differences between the four species and all about HuDoNet and the work they are doing. Show Notes: HuDoNet.org HuDoNet’s LinkedIn HuDoNet’s Facebook Hudonet’s Instagram (@hudonet) A Close Encounter with Two Cetacean Species: https://whale-tales.org/a-close-encounter-with-two-cetacean-species/
This month on the Whale Tales Podcast we welcomed Regina Asmutis-Silvia, the Executive Director and Senior Biologist of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation – North America. We chat about North Atlantic Right Whales, some of the super cool new technologies being used in fishing to decrease entanglement in large whales, and other research that’s happening to help these endangered animals. Plus: Regina shares her journey to becoming the Executive Director of a nonprofit and tells us about some of her cool and random cetacean sightings! Listen wherever you get your podcasts🎧 Show Notes -WDC North
After years of exploring the deep mysteries of whales, dolphins, and porpoises… we’ve realized something. We’ve been ignoring the TRUE titans of the sea. Creatures so majestic, so misunderstood, that sailors once mistook them for mermaids. So today, we are pivoting – Welcome to: The Sirenian Podcast.
It’s Dolphin Awareness Month! We are celebrating by chatting with researcher Sarah Matthews about a species we have long neglected – Common Dolphins🐬 It’s just a bunch of dolphin girls this month so join us! Show Notes: -The Dolphin Zone: dolphinzone.org – the Cetacean Strandings Information Programme: ukstrandings.org –Marine Strandings Hotline -British Divers Marine Life Rescue: bdmlr.org.uk/ -A Poignant Encounter with a Common Dolphin: https://whale-tales.org/a-poignant-encounter-with-a-common-dolphin/
We have a wonderful episode for you this month on the Whale Tales Podcast – we talk to Tom Cezimbra about Guiana Dolphins (ever heard of them?), his research with these cetaceans and his unique career journey that has led to his current PhD. We hope you enjoy it as much as did! Show Notes: –Happy Whale -Follow Tom on Instagram: instagram.com/tom.cezimbra and Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/guianadolphin.bsky.social -A Boat Long Whale! https://whale-tales.org/a-boat-long-whale/ -Visit our Patreon for an extra Whale Tale from Tom from Whale Wise – listen at any level!
We are kicking the year off with a fantastic conversation with Elizabeth Zwamborn. We talk to her about Pilot Whales, Bottlenose Whales, Sperm Whales, cetaceans on the East Coast of Canada, her journey through academia and all sorts of other great super nerdy things – join us! Show Notes -Elizabeth’s other Whale Tales: https://whale-tales.org/?s=elizabeth -Flipper Slapping Pilot Whales: https://whale-tales.org/flipper-slapping-pilot-whales-2025/ -Sex in Cetaceans book: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-35651-3 -Instagram: @offshoreorca on Instagram, -The Cape Breton Pilot Whale
Happy December! This month we are taking a break for the holidays but we would never leave you without an episode so we are releasing our December 2024 Whale Tales Watches episode on Mystic Christmas as a holiday gift for all of you! Last year we teamed up with The Charts & Hearts Podcast to discuss this Hallmark movie – a movie with not enough seals and too many winter coats! Also we’re still mad it’s not called Sealed With a Kiss 🙄. If you enjoyed this episode you can get bi monthly Whale Tales Watches episodes from us at the $10/month level of Patreon. You can check out the Charts & Hearts
We’ve got another great episode for you this month. We welcome Dr. Jeremy Kiszka to the pod to talk about his research on cetaceans and marine ecology including cool species like Dwarf Sperm Whales. Jeremy also shares part of his career journey and offers some really great advices for young scientists. Show Notes: -The Society for Marine Mammology: https://marinemammalscience.org/ -Fahlo: https://myfahlo.com/en-ca -Join our Patreon to hear us discuss “The Great Whale Conveyor Belt” a paper Jeremy co authored! patreon.com/whaletales -Special Encounter with Fraser’s Dolphins: https://whale-tales
We are joined by returning guest Ashley this month to hear all about the whale watching season in the Salish Sea in 2025 – spoiler alert there were a LOT of different Killer Whales around this year! *Please note this episode was recorded on September 30th, 2025. Show Notes: -Read Ashley’s Whale Tales -Bubble Net Feeding in the Salish Sea – 30/8/25: https://whale-tales.org/bubble-net-feeding-in-the-salish-sea-30-8-25/
Today on the Whale Tales Podcast we are chatting with Dr. Anaïs Remili, an ecotoxicologist. She shares about her research in contaminants in cetaceans, currently focused on Killer Whales and while that part might be as upbeat as some of our other topics, Anaïs also talks about making potions, seal poo and a whole lot of SCIENCE. Plus she chats about Whale Scientists, a great blog full of information about marine mammals AND how to become a marine mammal researcher. Show Notes: -Anaïs’ website: https://anaisremili.com/ and Instagram: @anaisremili -Whale Scientists’ website and @whalescientists
Super nerdy episode this month! We sit down paleoecologist and biogeographer with Nick Freymueller to talk Bowhead Whales, Arctic fossils, his research on how species respond to climate change and many other nerdy things. Cue up the theme to Jurassic Park and let’s dive right in! Show Notes -21st Century Sea Ice Loss Will Upend 11,700 Years of Stable Habitat for Bowhead Whales: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.71377 -Follow Nick on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/smilodontology.bsky.social -Humpbacks in the Great Barrier Reef: https://whale-tales.org/humpbacks-in-the-great-ba
We are very excited to welcome Trevor Branch to the podcast this month. Trevor is a Professor at University of Washington who runs models and does research on a number of things including Blue Whales. We chat Blue Whales and all kinds of whales – and how they are all ruled by Orcas? Join us to find out how! Show Notes: – @trevorabranch.bsky.social– @bluewhalenews.bsky.social -Why Do Baleen Whales Migrate by Corkeron and Connor, 2006: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1748-7692.1999.tb00887.x -Fight or flight: antipredator strategies of baleen whales by Ford and Reeves, 2008:
Happy Orca Action Month! We are back this month and talking about – you guessed it – orcas! To celebrate Orca Month we are taking this episode to discuss the Killer Whales in the North East Pacific and how they are designated and also why? WHYYYYYYYY (prepare for some rants!) Show Notes: -Fun Flipper Fact paper: Josh D. McInnes et al, Evidence for an Oceanic Population of Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) in Offshore Waters of California and Oregon, Aquatic Mammals (2024) -Read the phys.org article about it: https://phys.org/news/2024-03-orcas-scars-left-cookiecutter-sharks.amp -All our Killer Whal
We are back and are finally covering Minke Whales (how have we not talked about these lil guys yet?!) Put on your mittens and grab your lightsabers (this will all make sense we promise!) as we dive right in. Show Notes: -Minke Whale Unusual Mortality Event along the Atlantic Coast: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-life-distress/2017-2025-minke-whale-unusual-mortality-event-along-atlantic-coast -Minke Whale Vocals: https://minkewhaleproject.org/behaviour/vocalisations https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/4732 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09524622.2018.1555716 https
The Whale Tales Podcast is back this month (celebrating our sixth anniversary!) with more amazing guests – Danielle Brown the Director of Research as well as Chris St Lawrence, Communications and Outreach Lead from Gotham Whale in New York. We discuss their work with Gotham Whale and their Wanted program, matching and IDing Humpbacks off the coast on New York and New Jersey (and trying to figure out where the heck they came from!) as well as all the other super cool cetaceans and marine life they see.🐬🦈🐢 Show Notes: -Gotham Whale’s Website: gothamwhale.org-Their sightings program, Wanted: g
We are back with another mailbag episode (a dolphinny one to celebrate Dolphin Awareness Month🐬) answering questions that were asked by you! Thank you to tsuchidayosh.bsky.social, samgree.n, bluetideproject, Eleanor Thom, lindsyvg.bsky.social, astrapionte, patrick0fveraa, amendoza3090, meganndautism, Perri, Autumn and Dorothy for sending us your questions! Show Notes: -A Very Rare Type D Sighting: https://whale-tales.org/a-very-rare-type-d-sighting-26-1-25/ -Vascularization of the gastrointestinal tract of the bottlenose dolphin: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10941539/ -An Immense
This month on the Whale Tales Podcast we welcomed Dr. Cindy Elliser and Kat White from Pacific Mammal Research who tell us all about Harbour Porpoises in the Salish Sea including what they’ve found in their incredible long term work (which you can read about it their latest publication!). While we do get pretty detailed about Harbour Porpoise mating in this episode, the biggest warning you need is that we also talk about seals 🦭 but don’t worry, its just a little bit. 😂 Show Notes: -PacMam Website: https://www.pacmam.org/ – PacMam Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pacificmammalresearch –
We are very excited this month to welcome Daren Grover, the General Manager of Project Jonah in New Zealand! Daren talks to us about marine mammal strandings and what Project Jonah does to help stranded cetaceans plus a wonderful overview about the whales and dolphins found in New Zealand. Show Notes: Website: https://www.projectjonah.org.nz/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectjonah/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/projectjonahnz/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/project-jonah-new-zealand/posts/ Learn more about Project Jonah and their life size Humpback: https://www.face
We are very excited to welcome Jackie Hildering, Co-Founder and Education & Communications Director for the Marine Education and Research Society, aka The Marine Detective to the pod this month! Join us for a wonderful and thoughtful conversation about Humpbacks in BC, research and community building. Show Notes: -The Marine Detective website: https://themarinedetective.com/ -The Marine Education and Research Society: https://mersociety.org/ -Whale Safe Boating Course Sign Up: https://signup-can.keela.co/boater-course-alert-list -Whale Warning Flag: https://www.bewhalewise.org/know-the-flags/
We are back this month with a super exciting episode featuring the incredible humpback researcher Stephanie Stack! She joins us to talk about research on Humpback Whales as well as her now very famous article “An observation of sexual behavior between two male Humpback Whales.” Full note in Marine Mammal Science: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mms.13119 Photographers of Humpback Footage: -Lyle Krannichfeld: Website: PueoMaui.com, IG @lyle_krannichfeld, Facebook: Lyle Krannichfeld Photography -Brandi Romano: Website: RomanosPhotography.com, IG @LovingMauiLife Saturday Night Live Fo
We are joined by returning guest Ashley Keegan this month to hear all about the whale watching season in the Salish Sea in 2024! (plus special guests Judith Scott and WhaleWise pop in to tell us an amazing story from earlier this fall) Show Notes” -Read Ashley’s Whale Tales -An Encounter with an Entangled Humpback: https://whale-tales.org/an-encounter-with-an-entangled-humpback-4-9-24/ -Follow Ashley on Instagram and TikTok -Follow Judith on Instagram -Follow WhaleWise on Instagram –Animals in Distress Resources -See HRC-MN1073 “Bird” (“Maria”) on HappyWhale: https://happywhale.com/individual/