Sometime between 1836 and 1841, a captain of one of the ships of the French merchant and armorer Abel Vautier came across a large animal floating at the entrance to the English Channel, its body covered by swarming gulls.

For several decades this remained as the only known specimen of this species, with many disregarding its specific status and claiming it merely represented an aberrant adult Sowerby's beaked whale.

[3] The species’ identity was confirmed by the discovery of two specimens from New Jersey, an immature male captured near Atlantic City in 1889 and an adult female found stranded at North Long Branch in 1905.

A sighting made in 1998, west of the island of Tenerife, involved three whales swimming over waters 1500 meters deep.

[6] In September 2008, northeast of the island of Lanzarote, some Gervais' beaked whales were photographed breaching out of the water.

[7] On May 5, 2011, one juvenile female specimen was found dead and beached at Playa Larga in Maunabo in southeastern Puerto Rico.

[14] The species is further included in the Memorandum of Understanding Concerning the Conservation of the Manatee and Small Cetaceans of Western Africa and Macaronesia.