Very little is known about the biology of this species (Mead et al. 1982, Heyning 1984, Mead 1989, Pitman 2002, Yamada et al. 2012), as only a few reliable sightings at sea have been made. Aside from its distribution in the temperate North Pacific, the specific habitat preferences of Hubbs' Beaked Whale are not known, except that, like other members of the genus, it occurs primarily in deep oceanic waters (Pitman 2002). Hubbs' Beaked Whales feed on squids (including the genera Gonatus, Onychoteuthis, Octopoteuthis, Histioteuthis, and Mastigoteuthis) and some deepwater fishes (Mead et al. 1982).

Endemic to cold-temperate oceanic waters of the North Pacific, Hubbs' Beaked Whales have stranded from central British Columbia to southern California in the east and along the coast of Japan (including the Sea of Japan) in the west (Mead 1989, MacLeod et al. 2006). There are around 60 records of this species, almost all of which are strandings and fishery entanglement deaths; the only live sightings that we are aware are several observations made far off the coast of Oregon (USA) during one day in 1994 (Hamilton et al. 2009; R. Pitman pers. obs., Yamada et al. 2012) and a sighting in Suruga Bay, Japan (Yamada et al. 2012). Their range is thought to be continuous across the North Pacific based on a single record from the central North Pacific (Yamada et al. 2012). However, it is most likely that a western North Pacific population in the Oyashio Current is disjunct from an eastern North Pacific population in the California Current (Yamada et al. 2012).

No map is provided for this species because the distribution is uncertain with a few strandings as the only available data.

The species is listed in Appendix II of CITES. Research is needed to determine the impacts of potential threatening processes on this species.