Pygmy sperm whales are deep-diving, offshore hunters, feeding mostly on squid pulled from water hundreds of meters down. Most of what’s known about them anywhere comes from animals that stranded on a beach, not ones seen alive at sea. That makes the refuges named for Virginia, Great Dismal Swamp, Back Bay, and Mason Neck national wildlife refuges, a poor match for the species. None of them are ocean habitat, and a whale built for deep pelagic water has no reason to turn up in a freshwater swamp or a tidal stretch of the Potomac.
Real Virginia records almost certainly trace to Atlantic coast strandings, not sightings at those inland refuges. The state’s ten records are thin and scattered, with a small July cluster of four and little most other months. NatureServe doesn’t rank the species here, marking it Not Applicable, consistent with a wide-ranging marine mammal that state lines don’t really describe.
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