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Lagenorhynchus albirostris (white-beaked dolphin)

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Image credit: Garth Mix, GMIX Designs

Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Scientific Name Lagenorhynchus albirostris
Taxonomic Rank Species
Original Description (Gray, 1846)
Scientific Synonyms (since 1950)
Common Name
white-beaked dolphin
All Common Names English: white-beaked dolphin
French: dauphin à nez blanc
Taxonomic Parents Kingdom: Animalia
  Phylum: Chordata
    Subphylum: Vertebrata
      Class: Mammalia
        Subclass: Theria
          Infraclass: Eutheria
            Order: Cetacea
              Suborder: Odontoceti
                Family: Delphinidae
                  Genus: Lagenorhynchus
Taxonomic Children
Taxonomic # 180442
Taxonomic data is courtesy of the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS)

Physical Description / Field Identification

White-beaked dolphins are extremely robust.  The beak is short, set-off from the melon by a crease.  The dorsal fin is tall and falcate, with a pointed tip.  The color pattern is highly variable, but the animals are mostly black to dark gray. The beak and most of the belly are white to light gray, and the beak is often mottled.  An area of light gra, originating on the upper flank, broadens to cover most of the tail stock.  There is often dark or light flecking in the region between the eye and the flipper.  Twenty-two to twenty-eight pairs of sharp teeth line each jaw.  Adults are 2.4-3.1 m in length (males grow larger than females) and weigh between 180 and 300 kg.


Can be Confused With

White-beaked dolphins are most likely to be confused with Atlantic white-sided dolphins, from which they can be distinguished by differences in coloration and beak length.  Also, in the few areas where they overlap with bottlenose dolphins, care must be taken to distinguish between these two.


Distribution

Range:  Temperate/sub-arctic

White-beaked dolphins inhabit cold temperate to subpolar oceanic waters of the North Atlantic. It is possible that two stocks exist, one in the eastern North Atlantic and the other in the western North Atlantic.

In the western North Atlantic, the range of white-beaked dolphins includes Cape Cod as its southern limit; the western Gulf of Maine; the Grand Banks; the coasts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland; the Gulf of St. Lawrence; Davis Strait; and the coast of southeastern Newfoundland.

In the eastern North Atlantic, white-beaked dolphins are common around the Faeroe Islands and Iceland; are known in the Barents Sea from Svalbard and the Murman coast to portions of the coast (and in the fiords) of Norway; in the North Sea and waters of the U.K.; in the Skagerrak between Denmark and Norway as well as in the Kattegat between Denmark and Sweden; the approaches to the Baltic Sea; and south in the English Channel, the coast of France, the Bay of Biscay, and in rare instances the Portuguese coast and Straits of Gibraltar.

Links to Distribution Map at Sea Around Us Project

Map of OBIS-SEAMAP Data Points

Existing observations across multiple datasets within OBIS-SEAMAP are indicated with red points.
Species distributions (pink background polygon if present) were digitized by Kristin Kaschner as part of the Sea Around Us Project predominantly from Jefferson et al (1993).

Reference
Jefferson, T.A., S. Leatherwood, and M.A. Webber. 1993. FAO species identification guide. Marine mammals of the world. Rome, FAO. 1993.320. p. 587 figs.

Ecology and Behavior

Habitat:  Shelf/slope

Groups of less than 50 white-beaked dolphins are most common, but herds of many hundreds have been seen. These animals are active, often leaping and breaching. While feeding, they sometimes associate with large whales.

Reproduction:

There appears to be a calving peak in summer and early fall (June to September), but not much else is known about reproduction in this species.  Newborns are between 1.2 and 1.6 m, and weigh approximately 40 kg.


Feeding and Prey

Feeding mode:  Seizing

Broad diet dominated by:  Fish>squid>other invertebrates

White-beaked dolphins feed on variety of small schooling fishes, squid, and crustaceans.  Cooperative feeding has been observed, in which groups drive prey into tight groups and push them to the surface.

Prey species include:

Fish:  Gadus morhua, Melanogrammus aeglefinus, Trisopterus minutus, Trisopterus luscus, Merlangius merlangius, Merluccius merluccius, Mallotus villosus

Cephalopods:  Eledone cirrhosa

Threats and Status

Main threats include:

Harvest

Fisheries bycatch

Entanglement in debris/fishing gear

Conservation status:

The IUCN does not list the white-beaked dolphin as endangered or threatened, nor does the U.S. government. Although not a target of any commercial fisheries, some dolphins are shot in Greenlandic waters. In addition, incidental catches in gillnets and trawl nets are known from several areas of the species’ range.

For current information on the conservation status of this species, please consult the following websites.

CITES web-page

Convention on Migratory Species (Appendix II, North and Baltic Sea populations)

International Whaling Commission

U.S. NMFS Stock Assessment Reports

References

Dong, J.H., J. Lien, D. Nelson, and K. Curren. 1996. A contribution to the biology of the white-beaked dolphin, Lagenorhynchus albirostris, in waters off Newfoundland. Canadian Field-Naturalist 110:278-287.

Kinze, C.C. 2002. White-beaked dolphin Lagenorhynchus albirostris. Pp. 1332-1134 in W.F. Perrin, B. Würsig and J.G.M. Thewissen, eds. Encyclopedia of marine mammals. Academic Press.

LeDuc, R.G., W.F. Perrin, and A.E. Dizon. 1999. Phylogenetic relationships among the delphinid cetaceans based on full cytochrome b sequences. Marine Mammal Science 15619-648.

Reeves, R.R., C. Smeenk, C.C. Kinze, R.L. Brownell Jr., and J. Lien. 1999. White-beaked dolphin Lagenorhynchus albirostris Gray, 1846. Pp. 1-30 in S. H. Ridgway and R. Harrison, eds. Handbook of marine mammals, Vol. 6 The second book of dolphins and the porpoises. Academic Press.

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