Prey abundance and biomass matrices of Common dolphins in the Bay of Biscay from stomach contents collected between 1999 and 2019

In the context of common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) bycatch in the Bay of Biscay, diet of stranded dolphins was studied to investigate time series variation of prey’s diversity, abundance and mass and the implication of the feeding ecology of dolphins in the interaction with fishing vessels. The dataset contains prey abundance and reconstructed biomass matrices of 238 common dolphin’s stomach contents collected between December and March from 1999 to 2019. Analyses were run on the total diet of predators but also on fresh diet only (including fresh preys according to digestion state, corresponding to the last food intake). To investigate temporal variation, we compared two periods (former: 1999 – 2006 and recent: 2017 – 2019). The dataset also includes information on dolphins sampled (size, sex, sampling period, stranding coordinates).