Stephanie H. Stack

I am a marine mammalogist with more than 20 years of experience studying whales and dolphins throughout the Pacific. My research explores how the lives of individual whales reflect the changing oceans they inhabit, and how those individual responses scale up to influence populations. Combining long-term field studies with emerging technologies, I investigate the behavioural ecology, health, and conservation of large whales, with a particular focus on how climate-driven environmental change shapes body condition, growth, reproduction, and population dynamics.

I am currently completing my PhD at Griffith University, with an expected completion date of January 2027. My research investigates how variability in Antarctic feeding conditions influences the body condition of humpback whales migrating along Australia’s east coast. Using drone photogrammetry, epigenetic ageing, biologging, and long-term photo-identification, I examine how energy acquired on the feeding grounds shapes growth, reproduction, and resilience under a changing climate.

Before beginning my PhD, I spent a decade as Chief Research Biologist at Pacific Whale Foundation, where I designed and led field research programmes on humpback whales and odontocetes across Australia, Ecuador, Chile, Hawaiʻi, and elsewhere in the Pacific. My research has been cited more than 700 times, including 37 citations across 33 government and international policy documents, and has contributed to conservation and management decisions in Australia and the United States.

Research highlights

• Documented the longest recorded movement of an individual humpback whale, revealing connectivity between the eastern Australian and Brazilian breeding populations.
• Published the first documentation of male–male sexual behaviour in humpback whales.
• Co-authored the first confirmed record of a southern right whale north of the Equator.
• Co-authored the first description of epimeletic behaviour directed toward an entangled humpback whale.
• Provided the first direct evidence of humpback whale calf nursing in Australian waters using animal-borne video tags.

Service & professional affiliations

• Member, South Pacific Whale Research Consortium
• Member, IWC Whale Watching Communications Steering Group
• Invited Participant, Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission
• Member, Society for Marine Mammalogy

I am affiliated with the Humpback Whale Sentinel Programme at Griffith University and Saltwater Science.