So I thought there was an accepted theory a while back that found whales and dolphins have communication patterns that matched human languages and that they had language and dialects and even nicknames for one another.

These animals are practically as smart as humans, why has there seemingly been no further progress in this? Why aren't we trying to translate so we can directly communicate with them?

Think of all the uses we could use them for and the secrets of the deep they could tell us we have no idea about, plus being able to communicate with another sentient species could help in the future if we ever meet aliens.