The genus name honors admiral Auguste Bérard (1796–1852), who was captain of the French corvette Le Rhin (1842–1846), which brought back the type specimen to France where Duvernoy analyzed it; the species name honors Maurice Arnoux, the ship's surgeon who found the skull of the type specimen on a beach near Akaroa, New Zealand.

[12] Baird's beaked whale was first described by Leonhard Hess Stejneger in 1883 from a four-toothed skull he had found on Bering Island the previous year.

[14] Several morphological characters have been suggested to distinguish them, but the validity of each has been disputed;[15][16][17] currently, it seems that there are no significant skeletal or external differences between the two forms, except for the smaller size of the southern specimens known to date.

[18][19] The morphological similarity gave rise to the hypothesis that the populations were sympatric as recently as the last Pleistocene Ice Age, approximately 15,000 years ago,[11][20] but subsequent genetic analyses suggest otherwise.

[25] These whales are generally much smaller than known species (6–7 m or 20–23 ft), darker in color, and inhabit shallow waters closer to coastal areas, enough to be trapped within fixed nets for salmon.

[26] Local whalers had called them "kurotsuchi" (= black Berardius)[27][2] or "karasu" (= ravens); it is not known whether these terms are synonyms or identify two separate species.

[32] The two established species, Baird's and Arnoux's beaked whales, have very similar features and would be indistinguishable at sea if they did not exist in disjoint locations.

Their lower jaw is longer than the upper, and once sexual maturity is reached the front teeth are visible even when the mouth is fully closed.

[33][34] Among the observed differences in the sexes is their size: female Baird's and Arnoux giant beaked whales are slightly larger than the males.

Members of the Baird's species have fairly narrow body shapes despite their large size, and have dorsal fins that are rounded at the tips.

[38][2] Baird's and Arnoux's beaked whales have an allopatric (non-overlapping) antitropical distribution;[39] kurotsuchis are known to live in the North Pacific.

[39] Beachings in New Zealand and Argentina indicate the whale may be relatively common in the Southern Ocean between those countries and Antarctica; sporadic sightings have been recorded in polar waters, such as in McMurdo Sound.

[42] According to the California/Oregon/Washington NOAA stock assessment report the Baird's beaked whales can be found in the deep waters along the continental slopes of the North Pacific Ocean.

Within the Sea of Japan, the first scientific approaches to the species were made in Peter the Great Gulf, and the whales can widely distribute more on Japanese archipelago from west of Rebun Island to west of Oki Islands on unknown regularities, and major whaling grounds were in Toyama Bay and Oshima Peninsula.

[50] Capture records by Japanese whalers suggest that there may have been historical migrant groups of Baird's beaked whales that once regularly reached the Yellow and Bohai Seas, especially around the island of Lingshan off Jiaozhou Bay and off Dalian, [51] This may have included regions at least as far south as the Zhoushan archipelago.

Scarring among males indicate competition for this leadership position that must entail more breeding opportunities and gives evidence that the species' behaviors portray sexual selection.

[61][62] Underwater recordings, made in the austral summer in the Antarctic of a large group of 47 Arnoux's beaked whales showed that they were highly vociferous animals at this time.

[39] Mating in Baird's beaked whales happens in the months of October and November and calving occurs in March and April after a 17-month gestational period.

[54] Scarring among males indicate competition for leadership position that must entail more breeding opportunities and gives evidence that the species' behaviors portray sexual selection.

[35] Baird's beaked whale has a diet that consists primarily of deep sea fish and cephalopods found at its preferred dive depths (1000–1777m).

[41] Baird's beaked whales in the southern Sea of Okhotsk diet consists of deep-water gadiform fishes and cephalopods.

[41] In summer months, Baird's beaked whale can be found off the Pacific coast of Japan where demersal fish are abundant.

[41] Stomach content analysis's found that Baird's beaked whale feeds in benthic zones both day and night.

This behavior differs from its other Odontocete relatives (namely the common dolphin and Dall's porpoise) who feed in mesopelagic regions during the day when the light can penetrate the water column.

[66] This suggests that Baird's beaked whale does not rely as much on its sense of sight and has evolved to navigate and hunt competently with echolocation.

The Baird's beaked whale is listed on Appendix II[69] of the convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS).

It is listed on Appendix II[69] as it has an unfavorable conservation status or would benefit significantly from international co-operation organised by tailored agreements.

[44] There is preliminary evidence of the Baird's beaked whale being sensitive to anthropogenic aquatic noise pollution, as other odontocete species are.

[22][44] In the 20th century, Baird's beaked whales were hunted primarily by Japan and to a lesser extent by the USSR, Canada and the United States.

Meat and blubber food products of the whales have been found to contain high levels of mercury and other pollutants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).