The white-beaked dolphin has a robust appearance. Its beak is only 5-8 cm long. The dorsal fin is in the middle of the back, erect and strongly curved. Adults grow between 2.4 and 2.1 m long and may weigh between 180 and 350 kg. Males usually grow larger than females. The coloration is typically black on the back, with a white saddle behind the dorsal fin and whitish bands on the flanks that vary in intensity from a shining white to ashy grey. Belly and beak are normally white, but the beak may be ashy grey or even darker, which may appear as if a white beak was missing (Kinze 2002).
This is the most northerly member of the genus Lagenorhynchus, and has a wide distribution. Animals in the northernmost part of the range occur right up to the edge of the pack-ice (Carwardine, 1995). The species is found in the immediate offshore waters of the North Atlantic, off the American coast from Cape Chidley, Labrador, to Cape Cod, Massachusetts; the Southwest coast of Greenland north to Godthab; off the European coast from Nordkapp in Norway south through the North Sea to the British Isles, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the south-western Baltic Sea (Rice, 1998).
The main concentrations around the British Isles are off northern Scotland (including the Outer and Inner Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland islands) and along portions of the Atlantic coast of Ireland. They are common in the northern and central North Sea and in the Kattegat and Skagerrak between Jutland (Denmark), Norway and Sweden. It is the most common delphinid stranded and sighted in Dutch waters and is common around the Faroe Islands. It is also considered the most common dolphin off south-eastern Greenland, in Denmark Strait and the seas around Iceland (Reeves et al. 1999; Kinze et al. 1997).
Published estimates indicate a population of at least several thousand white-beaked dolphins in portions of the north-western Atlantic: shoreward of the 200 m contour between St. Anthony, Newfoundland, and Nain, Labrador (Alling and Whitehead, 1987) and in coastal and offshore waters east of Newfoundland and south-east of Labrador. In the Gulf of St. Lawrence for instance, white-beaked dolphins (2500 in 1995 and 1996) occurred only in the Strait of Belle Isle and the extreme north-eastern Gulf (Kingsley and Reeves, 1998).
It seems that at least a few thousand white-beaked dolphins inhabit Icelandic waters and up to 100,000 the north-eastern Atlantic including the Barents Sea, the eastern part of the Norwegian Sea and the North Sea north of 560N. A survey of the North Sea and adjacent waters in 1994 provided an estimate of 7856 white-beaked dolphins. The total number of white-beaked dolphins throughout the North Atlantic thus may be in the high tens or low hundreds of thousands (Reeves et al. 1999 and refs. therein). Kinze et al. (1997) maintain that the white-beaked dolphin is much more common in the North and Baltic Seas than its relative, the white-sided dolphin and Northridge et al. (1997) find that white-beaked dolphins are relatively common in European waters compared with white-sided dolphins, or compared with US waters.
Classification: Gray named this species from a type specimen which has a white beak, hence the common name. Albirostris also refers to this feature.
Local Names: White-Nosed Dolphin; Jumper; Squidhound; Springer; White-Beaked Porpoise; Kvitnos (Norway); Hnyðingur (Iceland).
Description: This dolphin is robust, with a thick beak and large, strongly curved dorsal. The tail stock is thick with a keel. The basic colour is black, with white or light grey patches on the sides extending both fore and aft of the dorsal fin, on both the cape and the flanks. The undersides are also white, as is the beak, but it can be mottled brown or grey or very dark. White-Beaked Dolphins grow to just over 3m in length, and weigh around 275kg.
Recognition at sea: The White-Beaked Dolphin can be easily confused with the Atlantic White-Sided Dolphin, but the former's two white patches, fore and aft of the dorsal, are good identifiers.
Habitat: Little is known, but the movements of the White-Beaked Dolphin are thought to coincide with the North Atlantic Current.
Food & Feeding: This species takes crustaceans, fish and squid, and are often seen feeding with Fin Whales.
Behaviour: Between 2-50 indviduals are commonly seen, but herds of hundreds or thousands are also occasionally seen. They are not known for their aerial activity, but have been observed breaching and landing on their backs or sides.
Longevity: Unknown.
Estimated Current Population: Unknown.
The Influence of Man: White-Beaked Dolphins have been taken, and still are, by Norway, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Labrador. A small number are accidentally trapped in fishing gear every year.
