kanaloa

White-Beaked and White-Sided Dolphins

White-beaked Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris)

One of the most abundant of all the North Atlantic toothed whales is the White-beaked Dolphin, which seems to prefer the colder northern waters from southern Greenland as far north as Sukkertoppen, on Davis Strait, and the Tromso coast of Norway . Schools are present in the North Sea throughout the year. On the American side of the Atlantic they are rarely seen south of Labrador.
The White-beaked Dolphin may be recognized at once by its white beak, about two inches long, separated from the sloping forehead by the usual cross groove. The dark color of the upper parts usually extends downward to the base of the blackish upper surface of the rather broad flippers. Old adults rarely exceed 10 feet in length.
This dolphin is protected from the cold of the northern waters by a thick coating of blubber. Vast schools of as many as 1,500 or more are often seen. Stomachs of these animals have been found packed with the undigested bones of whiting, claws of hermit crabs, and horny parts of the common whelk, a mollusk used in dyeing purple. They also feed on capelin, cod, squids, and crustaceans.

White-sided Dolphin

(Lagenorhynchus acutus)

Both summer and winter, schools of Whitesided Dolphins roam about in the North Atlantic Ocean, from southern Greenland and the North Sea as far north as the Arctic Circle on the coast of Norway, and south to the British Isles, the Netherlands, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts .
This dolphin is readily recognized by the lighter area on each side of the body below the dorsal fin, and by the conspicuous elongated yellowish-brown and grayish lateral streaks above the white underparts. Its beak is about two inches long, always black, and separated from the sloping forehead by a cross groove. This dolphin grows to nine feet, the males being slightly larger than the females. Schools numbering more than a thousand have been observed in the North Sea.
Close of kin to these North Atlantic types are half a dozen or so kinds of short-beaked dolphins that frequent the southern and circumpolar seas. The North Pacific striped dolphin (L. obliquidens) has been known to visit Monterey Bay and Puget Sound, but seems to be most numerous along the coasts of Japan.

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