Stomach contents of hairtail, Trichiurus lepturus collected in the Nakdong River Estuary were examined quantitatively. T. lepturus was a carnivore which consumed mainly fishes, crustaceans (such as copepods, euphausiids and shrimps) and chaetognaths. Its diets included small quantities of small squids. T. lepturus showed ontogenetic progression of three feeding stages : an initial feeding stage was a planktivorous stage in which copepods were the major food item, followed by a mixed feeding stage in which euphausiids, mysids, shrimps, chaetognaths and fishes were the major food items, and finally a piscivorous stage in which fishes were the major food item. Especially anchovies were heavily selected by large T. lepturus.