Long-finned pilot whale

The long-finned pilot whale (Globicephala melas) is a large oceanic dolphin, despite its common name, distinguished from its close relative the short-finned pilot whale by its unusually long pectoral fins. Females reach up to 6 meters and about 2,500 kilograms, while males grow to 7.6 meters and up to 4,500 kilograms, making it the second largest member of the dolphin family after the orca; it has a bulbous forehead and is black or dark gray with light gray or white markings on the throat and belly, including an anchor shaped patch on the throat. It lives in the North Atlantic and across much of the Southern Hemisphere, from the eastern United States and Canada to the Faroe Islands and western Europe, and south into Antarctic waters as far as 68 degrees south, hunting squid, octopus, crustaceans and fish such as lanternfish, Atlantic herring and Atlantic mackerel as an apex predator.