SPLAYTOOTH BEAKED WHALE (ANDREW'S) Mesoplodon bowdoini

It is known as the deepcrest beaked whale or rather, by choosing to acknowledge the one diagnostic feature of this species the Splay tooth Beaked Whale. Description Medium; length averages 4 m (13 ft) for both sexes. Weight averages 1,100 kg (1.2 tons).
Description Medium; length averages 4 m (13 ft) for both sexes. Weight averages 1,100 kg (1.2 tons).

The shape is similar in most respects to the Bering Sea Beaked Whale (M. stejnegeri 24), but smaller. Females may be larger than males. The colour is said to be a darkish grey, grading to light grey on the underside. Nothing else is known of this whale's appearance, which means that identification will be virtually impossible in the field.
Stranding Identification of a beached specimen should be reasonably easy. The teeth are very similar to those of the Bering Sea Beaked Whale (M. stejnegeri 24). They are 20 cm (8 inches) from the tip of the lower jaw, up to 15 cm (6 inches) high, 9 cm (3.5 inches) wide, lean slightly backwards and have a sharp point of denticle on the top of the leading edge. They have, however, no shoulder on the back edge of the tooth. They also differ radically in the fact that both large teeth curve noticeably outward away from the centre of the beak.
In this respect the beaked whales of the Pacific, which have superficially similar teeth, all displaced roughly 20 cm (8 inches) from the tip, can be distinguished by close examina¬tion of a beached animal or a clean skull.
Natural History Nothing is known
Status Nothing is known
Distribution Strandings are known in New Zealand from New Brighton near Christchurch, Waitofara Beach near Wanganui, from Manawatu Heads, Cook Straits and Steward Island and from Bunbury in south-western Western Australia.
The range appears from these records to be confined to the cool temperate waters of the central Indopacific. This almost certainly reflects the existence there of beaches that are both suitable for stranding and near enough to population centres for the stranding to be noticed and recorded. It would be surprising if the distribution did not extend to the eastern Pacific and perhaps also into the South Atlantic.