Washington holds just 11 Pacific white-sided dolphin records since 2000, and only two fall inside a county line, both in Grays Harbor on the open ocean side. The other nine aren’t tied to any county, a fitting record for a species that passes Washington but keeps mostly to offshore water.
A schooling dolphin of the cold North Pacific
This is one of the signature dolphins of the temperate North Pacific, an animal of the continental shelf and slope that travels in schools of dozens to hundreds. It feeds on schooling fish and squid, often alongside whales and seabirds where prey is driven to the surface, and it is famously drawn to boats, riding bow and stern wakes in bursts of speed.
Most often a summer sighting
Seven of Washington’s 11 records fall in July, with single records in March, April, May, and November. The species ranges the North Pacific in every season, but the calmest water and longest days along this coast come in summer, the same months when whale-watchers and boaters are out in numbers to meet schools that have worked inshore.
Status in Washington
NatureServe ranks the Pacific white-sided dolphin S4, Apparently Secure, in Washington, and the species is treated as native to its range here. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous in the state, and the IUCN has not evaluated it globally.
Full species profile
