Craddock et al.: Food habits of Lagenorhynchus acutus off the coast of New England 
393 
acutus diets, but give no record of spoonarm octopus or 
longfin inshore squid. Spoonarm octopus was rare (one 
individual in 95 stomachs) in harbor porpoise from the 
Gulf of Maine (Gannon et al., 1998). 
Both Atlantic hagfish and spoonarm octopus are bot- 
tom-dwelling species associated with sandy to muddy 
substrates on the continental shelf and upper slope. 
Spoonarm octopus is restricted to the western North 
Atlantic, and is found from Greenland to Florida (Muus, 
2002). Atlantic hagfish is found on both sides of the 
North Atlantic and is bipolar, inhabiting comparable 
latitudes in the southern hemisphere (Collette and 
Klein-MacPhee, 2002). Lagenorhyncus acutus probably 
does not dive to the bottom to forage. It probably con- 
sumes benthic octopus and hagfish in several ways, 
namely 1) it may feed on catch unwanted and discarded 
by fishermen and 2) it may feed on animals that have 
been forced off the bottom by otter trawls or that have 
come off the bottom on their own, as with hagfish, to 
feed on fishes disturbed by otter trawls. Most of our 
net-caught dolphins (79%) were taken in bottom otter 
trawls. Spoonarm octopus and Atlantic hagfish were 
only found in dolphins caught in bottom otter trawls, 
not from those in sink or drift gillnets. Lagenorhyncus 
acutus feed in the vicinity of nets (Leopold and Coupe- 
rus, 1995), as do bottlenose dolphin ( Tursiops truncatus) 
(Corkeron et al., 1990) and other cetaceans (Fertl and 
Leatherwood, 1997). This would explain both the cap- 
ture of L. acutus by otter trawls and the occurrence of 
benthic animals in their diet. 
Acknowledgments 
We thank M. Moore and D. Rana for assistance sort- 
ing stomach contents. We also acknowledge K. Touhey, 
K. Pugliares, S. Herzig, C. Harry, and the volunteers 
of the Cape Cod Stranding Network; K. Patchett and 
K. Matassa, Marine Science Education and Research 
Center, University of New England; D. Potter, B. Len- 
tell, S. Wetmore, N. Gilles, and the Observers of the 
NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center, 
Northeast Fisheries Observer Program (NEFOP); C. 
Potter, and M. Vecchione, Smithsonian Institution; R. 
Backus, M. Moore, A. Bogomolni, and R. Harbison,Woods 
Hole Oceanographic Institution; G. Early, Mote Marine 
Laboratory; K. Hartel and A. Williston, Museum of 
Comparative Zoology; J. Galbraith, J. Burnett, W. Duffy, 
B. Josephson, R. Merrick, F. Serchuk, S. Sutherland, G. 
Thornton, J. Kircun, and T. Vidal, Northeast Fisher- 
ies Science Center; C. Lea, Sea Education Association; 
M. Weinrich, Whale Center of New England; and one 
anonymous reviewer. 
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