Range Description

The pygmy beaked whale is known from a handful of specimens and several dozen sighting from the eastern tropical/warm temperate Pacific, including the Gulf of California (Urban-Ramirez and Aurioles-Gamboa. 1992, MacLeod et al. 2006). These records extend from about 30°S to 28°N, and suggest that the species may be an eastern Pacific endemic. However, there is a single record of a stranding in New Zealand (Baker and Van Helden 1999), possibly suggesting that this species may have a more extensive distribution than previously believed. Alternatively, the New Zealand record may be an extralimital wandering.