Whale of a time: Dr Vanessa Pirotta is living her childhood dream

On a sunny winter’s day, a humpback whale found its way into Sydney Harbour.

The young marine mammal had taken a detour off ‘humpback highway’ – the migratory route that thousands of whales use to travel from Antarctica to more tropical breeding grounds each year.

Its presence on an otherwise ordinary Wednesday – yes, hump day – delighted ferry passengers and racked up millions of views on social media.

Scientist and ANU alumna Dr Vanessa Pirotta was one of the experts aboard the New South Wales Maritime vessel monitoring the unexpected visitor as it meandered through Sydney waters.

Pirotta, who was named Premier’s New South Wales Woman of Excellence for 2025, is the founder of Wild Sydney Harbour. The grassroots citizen science project is harnessing social media to help build our understanding of the wildlife in and around Australia’s most iconic port.

“When you have a whale in one of the busiest harbours on Earth, it’s a navigational nightmare,” she told her followers on Instagram. “It’s a reminder of how wild Sydney really is.”

Forging a new path

There aren’t many people who would show up willingly to a 9am interview, but Pirotta is bright and bubbly over Zoom when she speaks to ANU Reporter.

Within minutes, the wildlife researcher introduces Winston – a toy whale that has accompanied her around the world and has made numerous appearances on television.

“He’s just made his second appearance on Play School,” Pirotta says. “And we recently did a Science Week gig together.” 

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When asked about her favourite whale fact, Pirotta struggles to choose.

“They’re very social and they have these complex societies – and they’re long lived, they can live up to 80 years plus,” she says. “But what’s also fascinating is – how the hell do they know how to get form Australia to Antarctica?”

As a marine scientist, mother, children’s author and presenter, Pirotta’s journey as an early career researcher has been far from conventional. And that’s exactly how she likes it.

“The traditional role of being a scientist is changing, and I really feel like I’m at the forefront of that,” she says.

Pirotta an enthusiastic advocate for STEAM – science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics.  When she’s not appearing on TV with Winston or penning children’s books, she’s experimenting with technology including drones and artificial intelligence to assist with wildlife conservation and prevent wildlife trafficking.

“When I went through school and uni, I thought I would become a lecturer and do that at an institution for many years,” she says.

“But the reality is, the funding doesn’t work like that now, and so I have had to be very creative while staying true to the things I love.”

Marine magic

Like many 90s kids, Pirotta was a fan of Free Willy – she beggedher mum to buy the VHS of the film and watched it over and over.

“I grew up on a farm in Murrumbateman – the ocean was very far from me, but it was just something I was fascinated with,” she says.

“At the time, I had no idea of what I was really watching, but it was an awesome opportunity for me to see killer whales.”

Pirotta studied a Bachelor of Science at ANU, specialising in zoology, animal biology, evolution and ecology. Like many students, she juggled her studies with paid work and volunteering. For her, this involved working at the National Zoo and Aquarium and then as a dolphin and sea lion trainer – not exactly an obvious job for a girl from Murrumbateman.

“I spent my time during the uni holidays volunteering,” Pirotta explains. “I was dead set keen on achieving my childhood dream.”

Much of how she approaches science communication today, she says, came from her time at the zoo and the wildlife sanctuary.

“I remember being presented with a group of people – aged between two and 99 – and making sure I was able to articulate the information I was sharing in a way the whole audience would understand,” Pirotta says.

“It transformed how I share knowledge.”

When Pirotta was offered a job as a marine mammal specialist at Dolphin Marine Magic – now known as Coffs Coast Wildlife Sanctuary, it felt like she’d officially made it.

“It was like living in Summer Bay [from Home and Away],” she says. “It was awesome.”

But around the same time as this success, Pirotta’s beloved mother Rosa Pirotta, a prominent member of the Canberra community, passed away at only 52. It’s something Pirotta is comfortable talking about – that loss has driven so much of what she has gone on to achieve since then.

“I was only 21,” Pirotta recalls. “That really was the shake up for me. We all have setbacks that can be horrific, but I harnessed that experience. I took the opportunity to see that I had more to give society.

“My mother was entrepreneurial, she always made things happen.”

Doing what you love

Now as a mum herself, Pirotta is on a mission to empower the next generation.

 She has fond memories from her own childhood of getting off the school bus to watch the seminal kid’s TV show Totally wild and wants young people to feel as excited about science and nature as she still does.

“That’s where I get a lot of my inspiration from,” she admits. “It’s all about visibility, empowering kids to show them the possibilities and making sure we produce good content – while also keeping in mind the changemakers that sit in Canberra,” she says.

Parenting has also changed the way she works, and not just in the ways you might expect around time management and balancing many, many priorities at once.

“Being a mother has completely revolutionised the way I ask research questions,” Pirotta says. “It’s a bit corny but I was studying a whale and its calf, and after my first son I was born, I looked at them in such a different light. It was like ‘oh my gosh, she’s been a mum. This is what I’m doing too’.”

Her sons know that Mum is a whale scientist and are big fans of the vast quantities of marine-themed Lego around the house. And of course, they love any trivia relating to whale bodily functions – one of Pirotta’s specialties. Her PhD research involved using drones as petri dishes to collect viruses from whales.

Her advice for young people (and perhaps the young at heart) is simple: be yourself and do what you love.

“Surround yourselves with the things you love,” she says. “So much of what we do is online but going into the library or bookshop and looking through images in the wildlife section has always been such a source of excitement for me.

“Reconnect to those things offline and remember all the people around you – guardians, parents, teachers – who are there help support the things you love and help you grow in the most wonderful ways.”