Human impacts on cetacean behaviour and conservation policy

Overview

A major thread of my research examines how anthropogenic activities — whale watching, vessel traffic, and fisheries entanglement — affect cetacean behaviour and health. This work is explicitly designed to bridge the gap between research and policy, and several studies have directly informed US federal regulation and Australian government management decisions.

Whale watching and swim-with-whale tourism

I have conducted systematic research on commercial whale watching and swim-with-whale tourism operations in Hawaii, Australia, and Japan. My studies quantify how the presence of vessels and swimmers alters humpback whale behaviour, including changes in surface activity, swim speeds, and time spent in different behavioural states.

Vessel interactions and entanglement

Using drone-based imagery, I have quantified rates of non-lethal scarring from vessel strikes and entanglement in the eastern Australian humpback whale population, and documented behavioural responses to entanglement events in Hawaii.

Selected publications

• Stack et al. (2021) — The behavioural impacts of commercial swimming with whale tours on humpback whales in Hervey Bay, Australia. Frontiers in Marine Science. DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2021.696136
• Stack et al. (2020) — Identifying spinner dolphin movement and behavioral patterns to inform conservation strategies in Maui Nui, Hawaii. Marine Ecology Progress Series. DOI: 10.3354/meps13347
• Fettermann, McGovern, Barber-Meyer & Stack (under review) — Using aerial imagery to quantify non-lethal entanglement and vessel collisions in eastern Australian humpback whales. Marine Ecology Progress Series.
• Cartwright, Lyman, Venema, Currie, Stack et al. (2025) — Tending the sick: observations of epimeletic behavior in humpback whales towards conspecifics during entanglement events. PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0321284