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Wildlife filmmaker Bertie Gregory became obsessed with going to Antarctica to capture the largest known whale gatherings in the world.
nature

Capturing the Mysterious Antarctic Whale Gathering on Film

No one was sure about the size of these almost-mythical wildlife events—until we got it all on camera.
Bertie Gregory January 12, 2023
Fads—like, for instance, wearing a dead salmon as a hat—can spread within a trendsetter's pod and to other pods the group interacts with.
science

How Young Killer Whales Became Hooligans

Yes, orcas have viral cultural trends, too.
Shoshi Parks September 29, 2022
Along the Vietnamese coast, temples constructed in reverence to whales and other marine mammals—such as this one in Phan Thiet—house valuable information on the country’s little-studied cetaceans.
temples

How Vietnam’s Ancient Whale Temples Are Helping Science

For centuries, hundreds of shrines have preserved crucial information about the marine mammals' diversity and distribution.
Anne Pinto-Rodrigues September 19, 2022
Detail of Whalebone Fence on the Wadden Sea island of Rømø
Rømø, Denmark

Whale Jawbone Fence

Danish whalers once brought back whale bones to use as building materials in places where wood was scarce.
outsider art

Podcast: The Blue Whale of Catoosa

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.
The Podcast Team August 4, 2022
Tokyo, Japan

The Whale Monument

Emerging from the sidewalk, this sculpture of a whale commemorates the importance of baleen in traditional Japanese puppetry.
A pod of short-finned pilot whales.
science

A Whale of a Tale about a Science Breakthrough Ignored for Decades

In 1981, Helene Marsh and her mentor discovered the truth about a basic biological process—but it took many researchers years to accept it.
Madeline Bodin March 17, 2022
There are thought to be more than 300 belugas in captivity across 13 different countries, with the highest number housed in Russia, Japan, China, Ukraine, Canada, and the United States.
aquariums

The Tricky Business of Saving a Baby Beluga

For the first time, scientists were able to save a young whale stranded in Cook Inlet. What should happen next?
Sarah Durn February 7, 2022
Whale tails
South Burlington, Vermont

'Reverence' (Whales Tails)

A pair of black granite tails dive into a sea of grass in landlocked Vermont.
A transient killer whale power lunging—a hunting technique—off the California coast. A small subset of transient orcas specialize in taking down large marine mammals.
animals

Meet Outer Coast Killer Whales, Big Game Hunters of the Deep

Scientists say the animals have a distinct culture and vocal dialect, and specialize in taking down large prey.
Rochelle Baker November 8, 2021
Egypt is home to fossils that include a range of ancient marine animals, such as this early whale from Wadi al-Hitan, southwest of Cairo.
science

Meet the Egyptian Scientists Studying 'Ghosts' of the Desert

The country's extensive fossils include early ancestors of whales, the largest mammals on the planet.
Jessica Leigh Hester September 21, 2021
deserts

Podcast: Valley of the Whales

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.
The Podcast Team July 7, 2021
animals

Podcast: Ubatuba Whale(s)

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.
The Podcast Team June 21, 2021
Pianoro, Italy

La Balena della Val di Zena

A great white whale sculpture now sits in the location where the remains of a prehistoric cetacean were found.
The whale on the sign forms a heart with its spout
Florence, Oregon

Exploding Whale Memorial Park

Fifty years after a “blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds,” this idyllic natural area commemorates the carnage.
In non-pandemic times, the bar is packed for chantey night.
sailors

This Connecticut Inn Has Hosted Sea Chantey Singalongs for Half a Century

Landlubbers are very welcome.
Allison Hadley April 15, 2021
A whale chase depicted in the log of the ship <em>Washington</em> kept by James G. Coffin in the early 1840s.
animals

The Beautiful, Brutal World of Whaleship Art

The logbooks kept by 19th-century Nantucket whalers offer a colorful peek into the gruesome industry.
Jessica Boyall January 25, 2021
Orcas in the Pacific Northwest, such as this one off Vancouver Island, face numerous risks, including vessel strikes.
science

Orca Post-Mortems Tell the Story of a Population Facing Numerous Threats

The apex predators mean a great deal both ecologically and culturally.
Luna Shyr January 25, 2021