White-beaked dolphins are the only dolphin to remain in the Barents Sea Region on a year-round basis. They are found throughout the North Atlantic, primarily in shelf waters, but they canmay also inhabit offshore areas of intermediate depths. During summer, they can be found north to the ice edge. They are commonly sighted in coastal waters around Spitsbergen in summer, as well as in the pelagic parts of the Barents Sea, but are most common in the southern Barents
Sea in warm Atlantic Water (Skern-Mauritzen et al., 2008). White-beaked dolphins are highly social and occur in groups of 5-50 most of the time. Pods occasionally aggregate into very large groups. They are the most numerous dolphin species in the Barents Sea, with a population size of 60,000-70,000; some 130,000 animals are estimated to inhabit the Northeast Atlantic (Øien, 1993). Barents Sea sighting surveys conducted during the last 5 years, suggest that the distribution and abundance of white-beaked dolphins seem to be quite stable.