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Captain George Pollard House
Nantucket, Massachusetts

Captain George Pollard House

The island home of an unlucky whaling captain whose story inspired a great American novel.
List

10 Wondrous, Waterless Whales

From massive, still-oozing skeletons to a behemoth made of thousands of pounds of recycled plastic.
Jessica Leigh Hester August 19, 2020
List

Fish Out of Water

From soaring sculptures to smoked spreads, here are 14 places to see aquatic life without getting wet.
Jessica Leigh Hester August 13, 2020
This aerial photograph shows the scale of sea ice environment where it meets the Arctic Ocean. Somewhere within this expanse of water, an umiaq must intercept a bowhead whale within 3 yards.
animals

As the Arctic Warms, the Iñupiat Adapt

"What choice do we have?"
Atlas Obscura August 6, 2020
Whalers Cabin in Point Lobos State Reserve.
Carmel-by-the-Sea, California

Whalers Cabin Museum

This cabin from the 1850s is one of the first structures built by Chinese immigrants in California.
A new study suggests that when orcas and other whales swim to warm waters, they're taking a spa vacation—sloughing their skin and shedding the algae they accumulate in cold water.
animals

The Real Reason Whales Take Tropical Trips Each Year

No migration is too far for healthy skin.
Jennifer S. Holland March 3, 2020
museums

How Whopping Whale Skeletons Come to Life at 'Bonehenge'

“Every one of these animals has a story."
Megan Dohm December 5, 2019
Whale fat was widely used to wage war⁠—and make margarine.
animals

Hitler’s Secret Antarctic Expedition for Whales

Whales meant margarine, and margarine meant victory.
Luke Fater November 6, 2019
natural history museums

A Dead, Decomposing Whale Once Toured the United Kingdom

The Tay Whale brought together science, spectacle, and hucksterism in the quest to turn a buck.
Jessica Leigh Hester October 16, 2019
The researchers studied aerial images of 86 southern right whales off the coast of Argentina.
science

Drone-Piloting Scientists 'Weighed' Whales From 130 Feet in the Air

In Argentina, aerial imagery helps researchers get a close look at southern right whales from a distance.
Jessica Leigh Hester October 2, 2019
This is pretty much what it was like.
natural history museums

The 'Moby-Dick' Musical Is Swimming With Sea Shanties and Nurdle Ballads

We watched it with a whale anatomist to see if the cetacean science holds water.
Jessica Leigh Hester August 2, 2019
Ruins of a blubber oven in Smeerenburg.
Amsterdam Island, Norway

Smeerenburg Blubber Ovens

These circular ruins are all that remain of a 17th-century Arctic whaling outpost.
Alcoy, Spain

Llotja de Sant Jordi

This exhibition space designed to look like the skeleton of a whale is hidden underground.
Ethyl.
Santa Fe, New Mexico

Ethyl the Whale

Life-sized sculpture of a blue whale made of hand-recycled plastic trash.
Marlene
Fribourg, Switzerland

Taxidermy Whale of Fribourg

This unique preservation is one of the only taxidermies in the world made with real whale skin.
Inscriptions made by the crew of the <em>Delta</em>.
sailors

Found: Inscriptions by American Whalers, Carved Over Indigenous Australian Petroglyphs

Researchers believe the sailors were commemorating their voyages.
Jonathan Carey March 8, 2019
Beluga.
Churchill, Manitoba

Churchill River Beluga Whales

You don't have to visit the deep blue sea to see these majestic creatures swimming wild and free.
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

Keahole Point Blowhole

This unusual lava tube spouts seawater during high surf.