Family Delphinidae (Dolphins)

IDENTIFICATION
The Northern Right-whale Dolphin is easily identified by its lack of a dorsal fin. It is black, with a distinct hourglass-shaped region of pure white on the chest. It can grow to of 2.7 metres long, and its slender body tapers to an extremely thin tail stock and flukes.

MEALS, MANNERS AND MIGRATION
Northern Right-whale Dolphins feed on squid and a variety of fishes. They usually travel in pods of several hundred to several thousand, sometimes congregating with Saddle-backed Dolphins, Pacific White-sided Dolphins, Risso's Dolphins or Dall's Porpoises. Northern Right-whale Dolphins avoid boats, sometimes moving speeding away in a series of low leaps over the surface of the water. They do not engage in acrobatics.

STATUS
The Northern Right-whale Dolphin is considered one of the most abundant oceanic dolphins in the North Pacific. COSEWIC lists it as not at risk. British Columbia waters are on the edge of its range, but this dolphin is often sighted offshore.

DISTRIBUTION
Restricted to the North Pacific Ocean where it ranges from Baja California to British Columbia in the eastern Pacific and to Japan in the western Pacific. In B.C. waters, the Northern Right Whale Dolphin lives mainly in deeper waters (900 m or more). However they are probably rare in B.C. waters, as this is the northern most limit of their normal distribution.