Long-finned Pilot Whales are highly social; they are generally found in pods of about 20-100, but some groups contain over 1,000 individuals. These large pods are generally dispersed in smaller subgroups of 10–20. Based on photo-identification and genetic work, pilot whales appear to live in relatively stable, maternally-based pods like those of killer whales, and not in the fluid groups characteristic of many smaller dolphins.

This is one of the species most often involved in mass strandings (Olson and Reilly 2002). Strandings are fairly frequent, for instance, on Cape Cod (Massachusetts, USA) beaches from October to January. Mass strandings have also been recorded in European waters, such as in Scotland (Brownlow et al. 2015). Their tight social structure also makes Pilot Whales vulnerable to herding, and this has been taken advantage of by whalers in drive fisheries off Newfoundland, the Faroe Islands, and elsewhere.

In European Atlantic waters, Long-finned Pilot Whale sightings were distributed widely along the continental shelf edge and in oceanic waters, extending from the Strait of Gibraltar to the deep waters of the Rockall Trough around 60°N (Verborgh and Desportes 2023). No Pilot Whales were sighted in the North Sea or the Irish Sea during dedicated surveys. Abundance seems strongly associated with latitude, peaking at about 55° N and declining further north and south (Rogan et al. 2017). It was predicted to be highest in water depths >1,000 m and was strongly associated with the 2,000 m depth contour (Rogan et al. 2017).

In the Strait of Gibraltar they are found in the central part with depths between 600 m and 1000 m, probably exploiting the strong deep and nutrient rich Mediterranean outflow (de Stephanis et al. 2008). In the western Mediterranean Sea, the Alborán Sea is one of the most important areas for this species (Cañadas and Sagarminaga 2000). In that area, the average depth of encounters was about 850 m (ranging from 300 to 1,800 m). In the north-western Mediterranean Basin, pilot whales are encountered both close to the continental shelf and in more offshore waters (Praca and Gannier 2008, Azzellino et al. 2012, Laran et al. 2017).

Primarily squid eaters, pilot whales will also take small medium-sized fish when available (Gannon et al. 1997). Pilot whales are deep divers, most feeding appears to take place at depths of 300-600 m. In the European Atlantic and Mediterranean, their main prey is the European Flying Squid Todarodes sagittatus. In the Faroe Islands, when T. sagittatus is present in large quantities, they will feed almost exclusively on that species, but in years with low squid numbers, they adapt their diet and can feed on a higher proportion of fish, mainly on Greater Argentine Argentina silus and Blue Whiting Micromisistius poutassou (Desportes and Mouritsen 1993). Cephalopods also form the largest part of their diet around the British Isles and in the Bay of Biscay, with a higher number of oceanic squids Ommastrephidae, including the European Flying Squid, in the former and benthic Octopodidae in the latter, and a small contribution of fish such as the Conger Eel Conger conger and Atlantic Horse Mackerel Trachurus trachurus (Spitz et al. 2011, Santos et al. 2014). In the Mediterranean Sea, feeding appears to be similar but T. sagittatus dominates their stomach contents (Astruc 2005).

Long-finned Pilot Whales have an anti-tropical distribution in temperate and subpolar zones of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres (Olson 2018). In the Northern Hemisphere, this species is found only in the North Atlantic Ocean, including the North Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Abend and Smith 1999). The Northern and Southern Hemisphere populations of Long-finned Pilot Whales are geographically disjunct, and the two populations are apparently isolated although genetic evidence indicates a low degree of shared mitochondrial DNA haplotypes (Oremus et al. 2009).

North Atlantic
In European Atlantic waters, Long-finned Pilot Whales are found from 40° to 75°N with higher density in northern than in southern waters (Verborgh and Desportes 2023). In summer months, they distribute in polar and subpolar waters, from western Greenland to south of Iceland and around the Faroe Islands (Hansen et al. 2018, Pike et al. 2019a,b). In those areas, they tend to follow their prey (squid and mackerel) inshore and into continental shelf waters during the summer and autumn (Reeves et al. 2003). Highest densities areas are found between the Faroe Islands to the northwest, in the Rockall Trough north-west of Ireland, and offshore south-west of Ireland (Waggitt et al. 2020, Evans and Waggitt 2020). They are common year-round in the deep waters of the Bay of Biscay (Waggitt et al. 2019).

In the Mid-Atlantic, Long-finned Pilot Whales rarely occur south of the Azores where few sightings have been recorded (Prieto and Fernandes 2007).They are very rare in southern waters of Macaronesia, with no confirmed observation in Madeira (Freitas et al. 2012) and only two strandings recorded in the Canary Islands (Tejedor Fuentes 2016).

Mediterranean Sea
In the Mediterranean Sea, Long-finned Pilot Whales are most abundant in the western basin where two subpopulations have been identified (Verborgh et al. 2016, Gauffier and Verborgh 2021, Verborgh and Gauffier 2021). The inner Mediterranean Sea subpopulation extends from the eastern Alborán Sea up to the Ligurian Sea (Verborgh et al. 2016). Density of this species is highest in the westernmost areas of the Mediterranean Sea, such as the Alborán Sea and the Gulf of Vera, where they are present throughout the year, generally in waters deeper than 500 m (Cañadas et al. 2005, Verborgh et al. 2016). Density is apparently low in other regions of the western Mediterranean Sea, with few sightings recorded over multi-year surveys around the central Mediterranean Sea (Gómez de Segura et al. 2006, Gozalbes et al. 2010) and the Balearic Sea (Raga and Pantoja 2004). Visual and acoustic surveys confirmed a year-round presence of this species in the northwestern Mediterranean Basin including the Ligurian Sea and the Provençal Basin (Pettex et al. 2014, Giorli et al. 2016, Laran et al. 2017), but in low densities (Praca and Gannier 2008, Panigada et al. 2011, Azzellino et al. 2012, Tardy et al. 2016).

The Strait of Gibraltar subpopulation is distributed from 5.8°W longitude to the western Alborán Sea (Verborgh et al. 2016, Verborgh and Gauffier 2021). This subpopulation is present throughout the year, with a main distribution in the centrer of the Strait generally in waters deeper than 500 m (de Stephanis et al. 2008). The individuals tracked east of the Strait were associated with the western Alborán gyre (Verborgh et al. 2016), a strong current resulting from the entrance of surface Atlantic waters through the Strait of Gibraltar.

In European waters, the Long-finned and Short-finned Pilot Whale (G. macrorhynchus) distributions overlap mainly around the Iberian Peninsula where both species have been recorded. This has presented a challenge to abundance and conservation status assessments because the two species are difficult to distinguish at sea (Olson 2018). However, recent analyses used both morphological and genetic evidence to distinguish between the two species in waters off the east coast of the United States. These analyses indicated that Long-finned Pilot Whales were primarily found in sea surface temperatures <22°C and were uncommon in temperatures >25°C (Garrison and Rosel 2017). With the increase of sea temperature due to climate change, the range of Long-finned Pilot Whales is expected to shift northward in the Atlantic Ocean, and likely be replaced by Short-finned Pilot Whales at the south of their current range. The future consequences are unknown, either merely shifting or retraction of habitat range for Long-finned Pilot Whales.

The North and Baltic Sea subpopulations have been listed in Appendix II of the Convention on Migratory Species. They are also protected by some instruments of this convention, such as the Agreements of ASCOBANS (Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas, https://www.ascobans.org) and ACCOBAMS (Mediterranean and Black Sea and the adjacent Atlantic area, https://accobams.org/), and the Memorandum of Understanding of Western African Aquatic Mammals (Western Africa and Macaronesia, https://www.cms.int/aquatic-mammals).

The species is protected by most European countries, under the Habitat Directive for EU countries, except the Faroe Islands and Greenland, where it is regularly hunted, and Iceland, where the species is not hunted. The species is listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

There are no protected areas or NATURA 2000 sites established with the specific purpose of protecting Long-finned Pilot Whales, however some of their habitat is included in Special Areas of Conservation under the EU Habitat Directive and in Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance under the Barcelona Convention. No management or conservation measures have been taken as yet specifically for the conservation of this species.