In the North Atlantic, it feeds primarily on calanoid copepods, specifically "Calanus finmarchicus", with a secondary preference for euphausiids, in particular "Meganyctiphanes norvegica" and "Thysanoessa inermis". In the North Pacific, it feeds on similar zooplankton, including the copepod species "Neocalanus cristatus", "N. plumchrus", and "Calanus pacificus", and euphausiid species "Euphausia pacifica", "E. similis", "Thysanoessa inermis", "T. longipes", "T. gregaria" and "T. spinifera". In addition, it eats larger organisms, such as the Japanese flying squid, "Todarodes pacificus pacificus", and small fish, including anchovies ("Engraulis japonicus" and "E. mordax"), sardines ("Sardinops sagax"), Pacific saury ("Cololabis saira"), mackerel ("Scomber japonicus" and "S. australasicus"), jack mackerel ("Trachurus symmetricus") and juvenile rockfish ("Sebastes jordani"). Some of these fish are commercially important. Off central California, they mainly feed on anchovies between June and August, and on krill ("Euphausia pacifica") during September and October. In the Southern Hemisphere, prey species include the copepods "Neocalanus tonsus", "Calanus simillimus", and "Drepanopus pectinatus", as well as the euphausiids "Euphausia superba" and "Euphausia vallentini" and the pelagic amphipod "Themisto gaudichaudii".