Cetaceans have long been employed as a flagship taxon to attract funding and attention for ocean conservation. Yet, it remains unclear what information about these species attracts public interest. Drawing on 1859 Facebook posts made by Australian news outlets between 2020 and 2025 and more than 30,000 comments, this study explored media portrayals of cetaceans and the subsequent public response. More than half of news stories were sourced from Australia, with post volumes increasing during peak migration season. Specific negative news events, such as mass strandings or unusual encounters with cetaceans, attracted high volumes of coverage, though positive stories such as cetacean sightings and research about this taxon attracted the most frequent coverage overall. Interestingly, posts about cetacean art and photography attracted the highest average user engagement. Sentiment analysis of comments revealed that even negative post themes such as anthropogenic threats to cetaceans elicited positive responses from users. This highlights that these posts may spur positive emotions that motivate conservation action, though further research is needed. This exploratory study emphasises the role of cetaceans in capturing the public’s positive interest in the ocean and provides ecologically valid evidence for future experimental marine conservation communication research.