Stephanie H. Stack

Stephanie H. Stack

she/her

Marine mammalogist | Humpback whale behavioural ecology & energetics | UAV photogrammetry | Conservation science

Climate and health

Overview

Baleen whales connect distant parts of the ocean, building energy reserves on feeding grounds and spending them thousands of kilometres away on breeding grounds. That makes them unusually sensitive to environmental change: a poor feeding season can be reflected in the body condition of an individual whale long before it becomes apparent in population numbers. My research uses drone photogrammetry to measure those changes directly, tracking body condition, growth, and reproductive output across populations and years, and linking individual health to the ocean conditions that shaped it. Working across hemispheres allows these relationships to be compared between ecosystems responding to climate change at different rates.

Selected outputs

  • Stack et al. (submitted) — Body condition of humpback whales off eastern Australia reflects interannual variability in Southern Ocean climate.
  • Stack et al. (submitted) — Contemporary growth curves for humpback whales in East Australia using aerial photogrammetry.
  • Taylor, Fettermann, McGovern, Schoeman, McCallum & Stack (in press) — Comparing drone and vessel-based imaging to quantify epibiont coverage on humpback whales. Marine Mammal Science.
  • Stack et al. (2026) — Why warmer oceans are a problem for humpback whales. Frontiers for Young Minds. DOI: 10.3389/frym.2026.1581310
  • Currie, Stirling, Olson, van Aswegen, Evans, Stack et al. (2026) — Body condition differs among social clusters and across years in endangered false killer whales in Hawaiʻi. Endangered Species Research. DOI: 10.3354/esr01505
  • van Aswegen, Szabo, Currie, Stack et al. (2025) — Age-specific body length, mass and energetic cost of growth in humpback whales. Marine Ecology Progress Series. DOI: 10.3354/meps14937
  • van Aswegen, Szabo, Currie, Stack et al. (2025) — Maternal investment, body condition and calf growth in humpback whales. The Journal of Physiology. DOI: 10.1113/JP287379
  • van Aswegen, Szabo, Currie, Stack et al. (2025) — Energetic cost of gestation and prenatal growth in humpback whales. The Journal of Physiology. DOI: 10.1113/JP287304
  • Cheeseman et al. (2024) — Bellwethers of change: population modeling of North Pacific humpback whales from 2002 through 2021 reveals shift from recovery to climate response. Royal Society Open Science. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.231462
  • von Hammerstein, Setter, van Aswegen, Currie & Stack (2022) — High-resolution projections of global sea surface temperatures reveal critical warming in humpback whale breeding grounds. Frontiers in Marine Science. DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2022.837772

Media and public engagement

  • Featured in PBS Changing Seas, Season 14, Episode 2, “Humpback Health” (2022)
  • Invited speaker, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Earth Optimism lecture series, “Hope for Humpbacks” (2022)