James Sowerby, an English naturalist and artist, first described the species in 1804 from a skull obtained from a male that had stranded in the Moray Firth, Scotland, in 1800.

[3] Sowerby's beaked whale has a typical body shape for the genus, and is mainly distinguished by the male's dual teeth positioned far back in the mouth.

The colouration pattern is a grey with light countershading on the bottom, and frequently has cookiecutter shark bites and scars from teeth (in males).

The gestation period lasts for 12 months and the young are born at a length of 2.4 to 2.7 metres (8 to 9 ft) with a weight of around 185 kilograms (400 lb).

[5] On 10 January 2009, a female Sowerby's beaked whale was found at the port of Fethiye on the Aegean coast of Turkey, far away from her natural habitat.

Biologists from the aquarium and the International Fund for Animal Welfare said they would perform a necropsy at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

[10] On 21 August 2020, a 3.86 m (12.7 ft) long female Sowerby's beaked whale washed up on the shore of a beach in Caister-on-Sea, Norfolk.

[11] On successive days in October 2020, two Sowerby's beaked whales were washed up on separate beaches in East Lothian.

[13] On 28 September 2024, the bodies of two Sowerby's beaked whales, initially thought to be large dolphins, were sighted on a beach of near Eculleville, France on the Cotentin Peninsula.

Their swimming and diving behaviours are more similar to deep-diving delphinids such as Risso's dolphins and pilot whales than to other mesoplodonts.