Whale Stories

WWF and other partners are working to prevent the setting of nets around whales and other cetaceans and improve the reporting of when these mammals become entangled.

Using cutting-edge technology, researchers are uncovering profound links among ocean health, climate change, and the denizens of the deep

Whales are the largest living creatures on the planet. But this massive stature is not their only superpower: whales play an important role when it comes to ocean productivity that could, by extension, influence the climate.

Once home to a whaling station, Chile's Guafo Island now teems with biodiversity. It's a cetecean migratory hotspot and the site of a major conservation project for 10 Indigenous tribes and WWF.

Despite improved policies to protect these animals in recent decades, whales increasingly face warmer waters and the impacts of global trade.

Combatting climate change helps save wildlife populations around the globe, but the reverse is also true: Wildlife conservation plays an essential role in regulating our climate. By saving wildlife, we help save the planet, including ourselves.

The growing dangers whales face worldwide along their epic migrations are signs of an ocean in peril, and reveal how these waters connect us all.

Only 366 critically endangered North Atlantic right whales are left, experts say, representing a shocking 8% decline in a single year and the lowest number in about 20 years for this iconic species. Human impacts—specifically entanglements in fixed fishing gear and vessel strikes from ship traffic—remain the biggest threats to the survival of this species.

Every late winter and early spring, gray whales navigate to the protected bays of the Baja Peninsula, to mate or give birth to their young. Getting up close to these amazing animals is an unforgettable experience.

Protecting whales is crucial to protecting healthy oceans for all of us. Yet even these ocean giants are being impacted by the "deadliest predator in the sea": plastic pollution.

Whales don’t recognize national boundaries. But they do have core geographies and habitats where they most often roam—whether to rest, mate, frolic, or feed. Discover a few of the Antarctic’s whales.

As global temperatures shoot up, the vast storehouse of ice in Antarctica is at risk. A team tags whales, shares data, and works together to protect a changing ecosystem at the bottom of the world.

Microplastics have accumulated abundantly in the Mediterranean. WWF is analyzing traces of plastic we find in whales to understand the strain that rising pollution puts on our oceans and marine life.

Using new technology, like drones and digital tags, researchers have found that nearly every part of the Antarctica peninsula is important for whales’ feeding and resting. But it is also a hotspot for global climate change. WWF is calling for the protection of this remote wilderness in or effort to preserve 30% of the oceans by 2030.

We all know how great moms can be. The same is true in parts of the wild. Take a look at a few images of animals with their parents.

Unprecedented numbers of humpback whales have been gorging themselves for the last few months in the waters around Monterey Bay, California.

On November 6, 2012, the Government of Mozambique announced the creation of the second largest marine protected area in Africa. Made up of ten islands off the coast of northern Mozambique, this coastal marine reserve in the Primeiras and Segundas Archipelago will cover more than 4020 square miles and contains abundant coral and turtle species.