In order to find food for their baby birds, puffins dive into the ocean and grasp fish between their jaws before flying away. When searching for a meal, puffins have to choose between a single large fish or multiple smaller fish. Larger fish can be difficult to hold because puffins grasp a fish around its gills, leaving the fish dangling to one side of the mouth, making it difficult to fly. Instead, puffins make numerous short, shallow dives to catch large numbers of small fish. Puffins on average carry around 10 fish at a time.