Whale Mini-Tales

First and best whale encounter stories by WWF conservation experts

12 February 2025

Yacqueline Montecinos of WWF Chile and a blue whale in the Gulf of Corcovado, Chile, 2006. © Yaqueline Montecinos personal archive.

From hearing the breathing of thousands of narwhals arriving peacefully in their summering grounds, to having a very close encounter with a blue whale surfacing right next to your boat, to listening out for singing humpbacks underwater - these are some of the most incredible whale encounters shared by WWF experts from around the world. Read on to discover more whale tales and celebrate this World Whale Week with us.

Melanie Lancaster (now with WWF Global Arctic Programme) and other researchers looking out for narwhal in the Canadian High Arctic, 2017. © Andréanne Beardsell

“They sounded just like us” - Melanie Lancaster, Arctic Species Conservation Lead, WWF Global Arctic Program, Stockholm, Sweden

Well, my best encounter was in 2017, when I was assisting with a field research project on narwhal in the Canadian High Arctic. We arrived at the field camp and the narwhal hadn’t arrived yet, even though it was a popular summering area for them. So we waited patiently and with a lot of anticipation for about five days. And still, we had no narwhal. Until finally, early one morning at about 4 a.m. they arrived. It was really very, very calm, and we were camped on the edge of the water. We all came out of our tents and we watched as over the next several hours about 4,000 narwhals came swimming into the area where we were camped. It was beautiful, it was calm and still, and we could hear them breathing. They sounded just like us, swimming, as they came in. There were mothers with calves, males with tusks... It was just really magical.

“A curious little baby” - Stacey Mac Donald, Advisor, Dutch Caribbean Programme, WWF Netherlands, Martinique, the Caribbean

My best whale encounter was in Curaçao. I was on an expedition with the Caribbean Cetacean Society, and we were surrounded by sperm whales. We saw blows everywhere on the north of the island. Then, at some point, while all the moms were feeding, one baby from the group came really close to the boat and was inspecting the hydrophone, the boat, and was super curious. It was a really magnificent encounter!

“A pod migrating close to home” - Duncan Williams, Interim Conservation Programme Manager, WWF Pacific Fiji Office, Suva, Fiji

I saw a whale for the first time off the coast of Nova Scotia in Canada but my best whale encounter was observing a pod of migrating humpback whales from a boat passing close to Suva in July last year. It was exciting to know that these magnificent animals were so close to my home city! Humpback whales are known to migrate through Fiji’s waters to reach Tonga each year where they breed but I’ve never really seen humpbacks that close to Suva before. Definitely something for us to look forward to in the future and hoping for them to come back around the same time this year. 

Whale Encounter Stories - Part I

“The best day ever, Mom!” - Rachel Sapery-James, Senior Manager for Blue Pacific, WWF Australia, Queensland, Australia

Greetings! I'm dialling in from Gubbi Gubbi country, Sunshine Coast, southern Queensland, Australia, where I am so fortunate to live and work, and witness the annual migration of the humpback whale up the Queensland coast in my backyard. This year I took my daughter out for the first time whale watching, and she described her experience as “the best day ever, Mom!”.

The humpback whale species recovery success story in Australia is remarkable. Bouncing back from the brink, from a couple of hundred of animals over 60 years ago to now, almost 40,000 animals in Australian waters. It’s a story of success that we can all celebrate!

“Here she is, here she is, here she is!” - Yacqueline Montecinos, Marine Biodiversity and Ocean Policy Coordinator, WWF Chile, Paillaco, Chile

Hola. My best whale encounter was back in 2006, I think. On that occasion we were working with a group of blue whales, and this group was giving us around three to four floats to approach them, do photo IDs, and bio sampling. One particular animal gave us just two blows, and then she was gone, completely gone. I remember at some point my professor saying: “Here she is, here she is, here she is!”. She just came out right next to the boat! So, so close that I felt like I could touch her, if I could move. But obviously I couldn't move because she was so close that actually, in my memories, she moved the boat around maybe by 10-15 degrees, but obviously it was just five. But it felt like the movement of the boat was so big because of the whale, as it was pushing us as she came out of the water. And actually nobody on the boat managed to do anything. My professor didn’t even manage to take proper photo IDs… But it was amazing! It was really, really spectacular! She was so close and so big. I remember feeling that she was massive, just massive! And because she was so close, my professor’s photos are just the whale skin pattern because the camera was too close to do photo IDs. So yeah, it was amazing. It was one of the wonders of the Corcovado Gulf in southern Chile.

“Hearing their song in their element” - Pepe Clarke, Global Oceans Practice Leader, WWF International, Queensland, Australia

Over the course of my life, the number of humpback whales on the east coast of Australia has steadily grown as a result of protection measures. I remember seeing whales as a child, and over the course of my life I've been very fortunate to see some of them up close. But the best whale experience that really stands out to me was recently diving off the shore into the waves, swimming out beyond the breakers, and listening carefully to hear the migrating humpbacks. There's something incredible about hearing their song in their element, and it's one of the most beautiful experiences of my life.

“The reason why I decided to become a whale expert” - Nathalie Houtman, Ocean Connectivity Advisor, WWF Netherlands, Zeist, Netherlands

My first whale encounter was seeing not one, but two blue whales in the Azores, in the middle of the North-Atlantic. These whales changed my life. Crossing paths with the largest species to ever live made me realise how powerful and yet how vulnerable these animals are. I wondered what they had experienced on their long journeys. It was so impressive that from that moment on I decided to dedicate my career to protecting cetaceans and other marine life.

Whale Encounter Stories - Part II

“Breached several times, left us speechless, and then disappeared” - Wendy Elliott, Interim Leader, Biodiversity Practice, WWF International

I'm going to share with you my most special whale encounter. And it was particularly special because it came right after an International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting where we had been fighting hard for strengthening the conservation of whales - in particular, one of the most threatened whale species at the time, the North Pacific Right Whale, which was threatened by potential oil and gas drilling in Bristol Bay. We worked really closely with the WWF Arctic team in Alaska, launching a report. One member of that team even came to the [IWC] meeting dressed as a Right Whale! It was spectacular. We managed to raise the profile so much, we even had ministers challenging the US government on the floor about its oil and gas drilling plans. Straight after that, I went out into the ocean, desperately hoping to see a whale off the coast of Alaska. We were out all day. It was freezing cold. It was blustery. The waves were big. We saw nothing all day. And we were on our way back when the most enormous humpback erupted from the sea. It was so surprising and so magical. It really reiterated to me the immense insanity that the tiny animals that we are, are causing such threats to these enormous, magnificent creatures. The humpback breached several times, left us speechless, and then disappeared. That whole experience really ignited and reignited my passion for these incredibly special creatures that we share our oceans with. 

“Two mums, two babies, and one drone” - Piero Uceda, Associate Officer, Pacific Seascape, WWF Peru, Lima, Peru

My best whale encounter was when I was in northern Peru, conducting a study to determine the impact of tourism vessels on mother-calf groups of humpback whales. In one of the drone flights I identified four continuous blows, two of them being very small. At that moment I directed the equipment to the area and started a recording that, once again, would change my perspective of these beautiful marine beings. We were amazed to be able to capture two mother-calf groups interacting with each other on video. This scene allowed me to further understand the close relationship that we humans have with these beautiful and impressive marine mammals.

“One blended family” - Amalia Alberini, Marine Officer, WWF Greece, Athens, Greece

My best whale encounter was in the Ionian Islands, where I saw more than seven sperm whale mothers and calves socialising and taking care of each other as one blended family. The area is a rare habitat for the Mediterranean sub-population of sperm whales, where they have found an ideal home to feed, breed, calve, and migrate. The most astonishing aspect of that moment was being able to experience first-hand the complex social structure of sperm whales and how they form a resistant family unit through sound and movements. At the same time, I was also able to experience the cumulative threats they face, seeing massive ships passing through their home and imagining how all the underwater noise from ships but also from sonar and hydrocarbon activities must be impacting these incredible animals.

What’s YOUR story?

Perhaps you’ve been lucky enough to see one (or more) of these gentle giants yourself? Share your stories on social media (Instagram or X) to celebrate this World Whale Week with us! 

Whale Encounter Stories - Part III