Tsuchi' is an old-fashioned hammer shaped like a bottle, and so refers to this species' prominant beak. Baird's Beaked Whale is the largest member of the beaked whales, with a long beak and bulging forehead. The lower jaw extends further than the upper, revealing the one of the two pairs of teeth even when the mouth is closed. These long-bodied animals have small flippers and a small blunt dorsal, and are slate grey in colour, which can look like brown or black at sea. The undersides are blotched with white.
Adults are normally scarred from the teeth of their companions, cookie-cutter sharks and orcas.
Baird's Beaked Whales are easily distinguishable from the Bottlenose Whales as the latter have a smaller and less pronounced beak, and a more prominant dorsal. Baird's Beaked Whales are restricted to waters of the continental slope, and where the seabed is only a few thousand metres of the surface, in the North Pacific Ocean. The blow is bushy and easily detected on calm days, and the bulging melon and front of the beak tend to jut above the water when the animal blows. Baird's Beaked Whales are quite gregarious, tending to travel in groups of between five and twenty individuals, but with larger units of fifty being recorded. The catch averaged out between 1972-81 to 39 whales per year, and since 1983 it has been governed by a quota of 40.