Female elephant seals forage in the open ocean, while male elephant seals forage along the continental shelf. Males usually dive straight down to the ocean floor and stay at the bottom foraging for benthic prey. The females hunt for pelagic prey in the open ocean, and dive deeper (up to 1735 m, though on average about 500 m) and stay down longer than the males. Northern elephant seals eat a variety of prey, including mesopelagic fish such as myctophids, deep-water squid, Pacific hake, pelagic crustaceans, relatively small sharks, rays, and ratfish. "Octopoteuthis deletron" squid are a common prey item, one study found this species in the stomachs of 58% of individuals sampled off the coast of California. A female northern elephant seal was documented in 2013 by a deep sea camera at a depth of , where it consumed a Pacific hagfish, slurping it up from the ocean floor. The event was reported by a Ukrainian boy named Kirill Dudko, who further reported the find to scientists in Canada. Elephant seals do not need to drink, as they get their water from food and metabolism of fats.