Feeding association between dolphins and shearwaters around the Azores Islands

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Abstract
During a 9-day period in August 1985, several groups of dolphins (Cetacea: Delphinidae) and shearwaters (Aves: Procellaridae) were encountered while actively feeding on the same shoals of fish around the Azores Islands. Detailed observations, made from both above and below water, showed fish apparently being herded by the dolphins into a dense ball that remained just below the sea surface and thus within reach of the birds. Shearwaters mostly ate scraps of fish flesh left by the dolphins rather than entire fish and were probably little competition for the mammals. Shearwaters are thought to initiate these associations by actively joining the dolphins and their observed behaviour of following schools of nonfeeding dolphins indicates that such associations are sometimes formed deliberately rather than merely opportunistically. No benefit to the dolphins was apparent from this relationship and it is considered to be commensal.

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