Until now, it was thought that the albatrosses ate and found their food at the surface of the sea, this included dead squid and fish pushed to the surface by the waves, other animals that had eaten them, or death. This was thought because some species do not dive deeper than a metre. However, this theory was not true because some species have a mean (average) diving depth of almost 5 metres and can dive as deep as 12.5 metres. They have now been seen to eat from the surface, diving to catch prey and sometimes also plunging from the air to snatch their prey.