ABOARD THE JOHN P. TULLY — Imagine a man wearing a tuxedo being propelled from the dark blue Pacific. Now imagine dozens of them, their sleek bodies glistening in the early evening sun, seeming to defy gravity.

That is the northern right whale dolphin. You have probably never heard of it — even though it is a common visitor to B.C. waters — and you are less likely to spot one yourself.

“They are hardly ever seen close to land, which is why people will never get a chance to see them, unless they are out here,” says federal marine scientist John Ford from the Tully, a Canadian Coast Guard research ship.

“Out here” happens to be 30 nautical miles south of Brooks Peninsula off the west coast of Vancouver Island, beyond even the continental shelf at a depth of 1,500 metres.

The northern right whale dolphins were observed travelling with a school of Pacific white-sided dolphins — about 120 animals in total, fairly evenly split — early into our scientific expedition looking for rare whales, other cetaceans, and turtles.

The 13-day trip will continue up the coast of Vancouver Island all the way to Haida Gwaii in search of endangered species such as blue, sei and North Pacific right whales.

Which brings us to the dolphin’s moniker. “Who gave it that name?” says a frustrated Ford. “Not very inspiring for something so graceful.” As Ford knows, the endangered North Pacific right whale has no dorsal fin. Neither does the dolphin. Hence the name.

The other distinguishing feature of the dolphin is its coloration — predominantly black with a band of white underneath, widest between its flippers, which explains the tuxedo reference. And of course, those leaps, which, as Chris Stinson observed, are not always graceful. “I saw one do a tail walk, then he fell backwards,” said the assistant curator with the University of B.C.’s Beaty Biodiversity Museum.

An estimated 15,000-24,000 of the dolphins died annually in the 1980s during high-seas drift net fisheries in the central North Pacific. The United Nations ordered an end to the fishery in 1993, but only after close to one-third of the northern right whale dolphins may have been killed.

Today, with an estimated population of close to 70,000 in the North Pacific, this dolphin is considered a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and is not at risk in Canada.

Males measure about three metres in length, females closer to 2.3 metres. They can weigh up to 115 kilograms.

On the Tully expedition, watching for dolphins and whales is not a simple matter, especially for a newbie.

It is an exacting process that can involve at least three members of the 15-member science team.

Dawn-to-dusk rotating shifts start above the bridge on the monkey’s island, which affords a commanding view of the open Pacific, but is also exposed to the elements.

Team members serve 30 minutes on the port side scanning from the bow to 90 degrees with 7 by 50 binoculars, 30 minutes on starboard, then 30 minutes on the bridge as the data recorder.