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.

Spinner dolphins eat several kinds of fish, jellyfish, squid, krill and some types of snails that lack the shell.

Although spinner dolphins gather in small groups for hunting, they remain coordinated with sounds and the usual whistles.

They usually submerge from 250 to 1,000 meters deep to hunt their prey. Eels, shrimp, and lanternfish (myctophids) also complement their diet.

Dolphins use several methods to get their food. Fish and squid are the main sources of food for most dolphin species, and they hunt in group cooperatively to catch them.

One method called herding consist that a group of dolphins encircles a school of fish to gather them as close as possible and after that one or two take turns to swim from the bottom of the school to have the largest amount of fish possible on each pass.

It is important that they go from bottom to top because if they were from side to side, the school of fish would probably disperse.

The second method is called corralling, which is performed taking fish to shallow waters where dolphins can just capture them.

Some species are even more specialized or with unique techniques to catch fish or other particular prey that only they consume, like killer whales hunting seals, for example.

The Chilean dolphin, also known as the black dolphin is a small dolphin native to the coast of Chile and it is the only place in the world where it inhabits.

They eat small species of fish, cephalopods, and crustaceans. In a few specimens analyzed, also seaweed remains were found. Sardines, sea bass or anchovy are their preferred species of fish.

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.