Melon-headed Whale - Population and Distribution

Population and Distribution

The melon-headed whale lives far from shore in all the world's tropical and sub-tropical oceans. At the northern fringes of its range it may also be found in temperate waters. Individuals have been sighted off the southern coast of Ireland. Ordinarily, however, the Melon-head is found beyond the continental shelf between 20° S and 20° N. Hawaii and Cebu, in the Philippines, are good sites for seeing the whale because the continental shelf there is narrow. Although no specific data exists, the species is unlikely to be migratory, in common with animals in its subfamily.

On February 10,2009, over 300 melon-headed whales were spotted off the shallow waters of Bataan, in the Philippines. Local residents and volunteers guided the dolphins back to deeper waters. Although no definite explanation has been provided for the dolphins' behaviour, it's been noted that two of the three dead dolphins had damaged ear drums.

In Hawaii, group sizes are variable, ranging from a single animal to pods of 800, but typically they are found in relatively large groups (median = 287 individuals).There appear to be two Hawaiian populations a large, deep water group that moves frequently among the islands and a small, shallow water population that stays near the island of Hawaiʻi. Melon-headed whales are closely related to false killer whales, short-finned pilot whales and pygmy killer whales. Hawaiian melon-heads spend much of their daytime at the surface resting.