Whales

Prisons in Washington State may be blocking book donations, air pollution is shortening lives, and a four-legged whale skeleton provides evolutionary clues.

As hunting grows hazardous, Arctic community centers provide meals of whale and seal.

Rules intended to protect people from pollution are simultaneously saving the lives of whales by slowing down cargo ships, but researchers say more still needs to be done.

Researchers are hoping to discover new travel routes of the Pacific humpback by utilizing a robot that monitors their unique means of long-distance communication.

Utqiagvik, Alaska: High above the Arctic Circle, on a slab of sea ice a mile from shore, an Inupiaq whaling crew watches for a passing bowhead whale under the light of the midnight sun.

Fatal collisions between ships and blue whales are far too common. Luckily, there are scientists creating new technology to fix that.

Orcas are losing their babies at an unprecedented rate. The solution may lie 400 miles away.

California has seen a record-breaking number of whale entanglements over the last three years. Now, the Center for Biological Diversity is suing the state for failing to protect its endangered species.

Orcas in the Pacific Northwest are struggling to boost their numbers. Could dams have something to do with it?

Marine ecosystems are just as vulnerable to seismic noise as other types of pollution.

Updates to past Pacific Standard print stories.

The world’s largest animals get snarled in every kind of sea gear that has rope—mooring lines, gillnets, shrimp pots, anchors. Scott Landry figures out how to wrestle them free.