Aims to provide an account of the distribution of all 28 cetacean species that are known certainly to have occured in the waters off north-west Europe in the last 25 years, but also including narwhal and melon-headed whale for which records are as recent only as the 1940's. Individual chapters cover a particular species in detail spanning identification, behaviour and social organisation, diet and habitat preferences, worldwide distribution and their status in the north Atlantic. Also includes a map and description of their occurrence in north-west Europe.
The Methods chapter describes data collection methods, database establishment, brief details of the analytical methods, and a section on map interpretation. Other chapters describe the nature of the marine environment of the study area, and present information on the current legislative instruments aimed at protecting cetaceans.