Stomach contents of the long-finned pilot whale, Globicephala melas, are reported for the first time from New Zealand waters. Analyses based on two male and three female whales (2.5-5.3 m in length) that stranded on Farewell Spit, Golden Bay, South Island in December 2005 revealed a diet comprised exclusively of cephalopods (2−33 lower cephalopod beaks per stomach). Two genera of cephalopod from two orders; arrow squid, Nototodarus spp. (Teuthoidea: Ommastrephidae), and common octopus, Pinnoctopus cordiformis (Octopoda: Octopodidae) were represented. A further five pilot whale stomachs were examined and found to be empty.
Haliphron atlanticus Steenstrup, 1861 (= Alloposus mollis Verrill, 1880) is reported from New Zealand waters on the basis of a single specimen of giant proportions caught recently by fisheries trawl off the eastern Chatham Rise. This specimen, possibly the largest known of this species and of all octopods, proves to be the first validated record of Haliphron from the South Pacific. Although extensively damaged, details of its morphology and anatomy are described.
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