The feeding habits of slope dwelling macrourid fishes in the eastern North Pacific

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Drazen ; Jeffrey C. ; Buckley ; Troy W. ; Hoff ; Gerald R.
• 关键词：Macrouridae ; Feeding behaviour ; Scavengers ; Deep-sea fisheries ; Diets ; North Pacific ; USA
• 刊名：Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers
• 出版年：2001
• 出版时间：March, 2001
• 年：2001
• 卷：48
• 期：3
• 页码：909-935
• 全文大小：1.21 M

文摘

The diet of slope dwelling macrourid fishes in the eastern North Pacific is poorly known. We collected several hundred stomach samples to investigate the feeding habits of Coryphaenoides acrolepis and Albatrossia pectoralis, the two dominant slope dwelling macrourids off the continental United States. Coryphaenoides acrolepis exhibited a pronounced ontogenetic shift in diet. Specimens <15cm pre-anal fin length (PAF) consumed primarily polychaetes, amphipods, cumaceans and mysids, while larger individuals consumed increasingly larger, more pelagic prey such as fish, squid, and large crustaceans. Scavenging was also very important to specimens >15cm with scavenged food constituting approximately 20 % of the weight of total prey and occurring in approximately 20 % of fish 21–29cm. Albatrossia pectoralis consumed primarily midwater fish and squid, and we believe that it feeds in the water column. There were significant differences between the diets of A. pectoralis and C. acrolepis suggesting some degree of niche separation between macrourid species on the continental slope of the eastern North Pacific. Both species are at the top of the food web on the upper continental slope and, because of their abundance, may exert significant pressures on their prey populations.