Diet of long-beaked common dolphin ( Delphinus capensis ) in the East Sea, Korea.

The long-beaked common dolphin is one of the most abundant cetaceans in Korean waters, and their population has been estimated to comprise of more than 35,000 individuals.Delphinus capensisgenerally appear close to the coast and primarily feed on epipelagic small fishes and cephalopods. Thirty long-beaked common dolphins were collected from the East Sea from February to September in 2012. For stomach content analysis (SCA), the fresh prey items were identified to their lowest taxonomic level, and unidentified preys due to digestion were identified using remnants such as fish otoliths and cephalopod beaks. Fatty acid (FA) patterns of 20 dolphins from the inner layer of blubber were compared with those in samples of prey items.Enoploteuthis chuniiwas the dominant prey in SCA, representing 55.8% by number and 75.9% by occurrence. Common squid (Todarodes pacificus) and Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) were the next major preys at more than 80% occurrence. Even though a distinctive difference was not observed between genders, there was a significant diet variation related to maturity. Immature dolphins consumed a higher diversity of prey, and consumed more equally than the sexually mature group, who showed a high dominance of cephalopods. Furthermore, this result fairly corresponded to FAs composition of mature dolphins with the raised percent of 20:6n–3, which is relatively abundant inT. pacificus. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]