Bottlenose dolphins diet consists mainly of small fish with occasional squid, crabs, shrimp, and other smaller animals.

Their teeth are not used to chew the food. When they find a shoal of fish, dolphins work as a team to keep the fish close together and maximize the intake. They also search for fish alone. Sometimes dolphins employ “fish whacking” where a fish is stunned (and sometimes thrown out of the water) with the fluke to catch and eat the fish easier especially when dealing with large specimens.

In some Mediterranean areas sometimes there is a conflict between common Bottlenose Dolphins and small-scale commercial fisheries looking for the same prey. Common Bottlenose Dolphins are probably attracted to fishing nets because they make easier for dolphins eat from a concentrated food source.

There are several species of herring, being the most common the Atlantic Herring.

This species is registered as the most available fish in the ocean by the Guinness book of records, which makes them at the same time, the most hunted species by dolphins.

The Atlantic Herring dwells on both sides of the Atlantic.

Dolphins eat mainly hunting in pods. To hunt, they organize themselves following a very sophisticated procedure where everyone in the pod has its function.

The first technique is called herding, and it is performed by a pod of dolphins when some of they surround a school of fish making them as compact as possible before eating.

After this, the remaining dolphins take turns to pass through the fish from below and eat as much as possible in each pass.

Another way that dolphins use to eat is by conducting fish to shallow waters where they cannot escape, and there devour them.