Humpback whales sing songs, so people call them the singing whale.

Belugas make many sounds, including whistles, squeals, moos, chirps and clicks, and they are very talkative whales.

Toothed whales hunt using echolocation: they send out clicks and listen for the echoes. Beluga whales use their ears and sound to find their way and to hunt, because they can echolocate.

Blue whales have the lowest voice of any whale, as low as 14 hertz, and the loudest sound ever recorded from an animal came from a blue whale.

A blue whale's calls can travel hundreds to thousands of miles through the deep ocean.

Killer whales, also called orcas, live in family groups called pods. Orca society is matrilineal: young orcas always stay in their mother's pod.

Each orca pod has its own sounds, and the calls work like family badges. Orcas click to echolocate, and they also rely on sound to feed, talk and find their way.

Orcas in packs can hunt prey bigger than themselves, and a pod may team up to surround a blue whale.

Right whales got their name because whalers thought they were the right whales to hunt. Whalers hunted North Atlantic right whales close to extinction.

As of July 2026, fewer than 400 North Atlantic right whales are left, which makes them one of the rarest great whales.

Words to know

• echolocate: find by echoes
• hertz: sound pitch unit
• matrilineal: through the mother