Whale Tales Podcast

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

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: […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

We are back with another mailbag episode (a dolphinny one to celebrate Dolphin Awareness Month

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 […]

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/ […]

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 […]

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 […]

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: […]

Surprise! We are popping into your feeds today with an extra special episode to celebrate World River Dolphin Day (today!) We were joined by friend of the pod, Emily Cunningham who is now the River Dolphin Conservation Lead at WWF and is here to talk all things river dolphins, especially the threats that they face […]