Larger members of the
Dolphin family (6-9 m)

LONG-FINNED PILOT WHALE
(Globicephala melas)

Characteristics:

• Up to 6.5 meters
• All black except for “anchor-shaped” white pattern on stomach
• Round, high forhead (melon)
• Hooked dorsal fin, wide at base in males
• Long tail (2/3 of body length) with grey saddle patch
• Long boomerang-shaped pectoral fins
• Sometimes seen mixed with bottlenose dolphins
• Commonly strands on beaches in New Zealand
  
  

KILLER WHALE
(Orcinus orca)

Characteristics:

• Distinct black and white pattern, white patch
  around eye
• Adult males have 2m tall, triangular dorsal fins
• Grey saddle patch behind dorsal fin
  

Whales (12-18 m)

SOUTHERN RIGHT WHALE
(Eubalaena australis)

Characteristics:

• No dorsal fin or ridge
• Whitish callouses (callosities) on snout, chin, blowhole
• Callosities infested with parasites and barnacles
• Slow swimmer
• Arched jaw, teeth absent, baleen
  

HUMPBACK WHALE
(Megaptera novaeangliae)

Characteristics:

• Small dorsal fin far on back with hump in front
• Knobs or bumps on head, jaws, flippers
• Pectoral fins long and white
• Folds or pleats under chin
• Underside of tail has white pattern
• No teeth, baleen plates
  

SPERM WHALE
(Physeter macrocephalus)

Characteristics:

• Blowhole on left side of head
• Large, squarish head, 1/3 of body
• Skin “wrinkled”
• Black, may have white lips
• Narrow underslung lower jaw
• Teeth only in lower jaw
• Usually seen resting at surface

© Whale Watch Kaikoura