The northern right whale dolphin has no dorsal fin, a black back and a white underside. It travels in groups in offshore waters of the North Pacific.
It has a slender body and short beak, and is one of the North Pacific dolphins without a dorsal fin. Its back is black and its underside is white.
Northern right whale dolphins live in the deep North Pacific. They are the only dolphin species in the North Pacific without a dorsal fin. Their black backs and white bellies sit on sleek bodies that rarely rise far above the surface, so they can look like groups of fur seals or sea lions.
They are about 2–3 m long and weigh roughly 59–115 kg. Typical groups number 100–200, but up to 3,000 have been seen. They leap more than 20 feet and eat small fish, squid, and octopus. Their range spans the North Pacific between 30° and 50° north; they move south in autumn and winter, then north in spring and summer. Foraging dives may last six minutes. Entanglement in fishing gear is also a main threat.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
NOAA Fisheries began a plan in 1997 to reduce cetacean bycatch in the California and Oregon drift-gillnet fishery.