The food consumption of a French person exceeds 1000 kg per year
According to a study carried out by the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES), in 2017, the French consumed on average 2.9 kg of food + drinks per day. Which corresponds to approximately 1058 kg per year.
A significant figure, but one that seems ridiculous compared to the quantity of food ingested by Hawaii's short-finned pilot whales. This species of dolphin, Globicephala macrorhynchus in Latin, lives in the waters around Hawaii, and still remains little studied according to IFLScience.
It is in this sense that researchers from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa sought to know the daily and annual consumption of these marine creatures. This aims in particular to learn more about their behavior, their eating habits and their energy needs.
A series of analyzes
In a study published on November 13, 2025 in the journal Journal of Experimental Biology, the research team, also made up of researchers from Spanish, Australian and Danish institutes, explains how their work was carried out.
The researchers traveled to the Pacific Ocean and then attached data collection tags using a removable suction cup to eight short-finned pilot whales. These beacons were equipped with motion sensors, a camera with lighting, hydrophones to capture echolocation signals and a GPS.
They also deployed drones to film each individual from above to determine their size.
The research team then analyzed the tail beats of the whales as they descended below the surface to determine their energy expenditure, and the echolocation clicks, which they were able to measure using a hydrophone.
More than 70,000 squid per year
These different analyzes allowed researchers to collect a lot of information on short-finned pilot whales. For example, they discovered, thanks to tail flapping, that these cetaceans expend 73.8 kilojoules per minute (around 17.6 calories) when they dive. An energy-intensive activity that occurred up to 39 times per day, at average depths of 400 to 800 meters and lasted between 8 and 16 minutes.
Note that each individual expends approximately 44.4 kJ/min (approximately 10.6 calories) when at the surface.
Hydrophone recordings indicated that approximately four squid were consumed per dive, with each squid providing approximately 560 kJ (over 133,000 calories) to the individual.
Using this information, the research team was able to calculate the number of squid ingested each day by short-finned pilot whales.
The results obtained showed that each individual should consume between 82 and 202 squid per day to meet their daily energy requirement. A figure which implies 73,730 squid per year.
Considering there are approximately 8,000 short-finned pilot whales in Hawaiian waters, that's up to 88,000 tons of squid per year. A colossal figure, although Hawaii is known to be home to several species of squid.
“These results show that short-finned pilot whales are doing relatively well in Hawaii, having found an abundant and reliable food source,” said William Gough, study co-author and marine biologist at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, in comments reported by Popular Science.
Source: IFLScience
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