Food and feeding of most abundant fish species in Flemish

• Main Authors: E. Román, C. González, E. Ceballos
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2006
• Subjects: Gadus morhua; Pandalus borealis
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.582.5873; http://archive.nafo.int/open/sc/2004/scr04-058.pdf

Food and feeding of the 15 fish species taken by bottom trawl from Flemish Cap Bank in summer during the period 2001-2003 were analysed. The stomach contents of 17 773 fish were collected in depths from 83 to 730 m. In general, the feeding intensity was high in all the species with a maximum value for Gadus morhua (96.3%) and minimum for Lycodes reticulatus (35.0%). The prey spectrum was width, with a total of 134 items for all the stomachs analysed. In frequency of occurrence, the crustaceans were the most important preys (FO = 80.4%), while in volume (V = 39.4%) they were less significant than fishes (V = 43.5%). The main prey group in frequency of occurrence were Hyperiidea, Copepoda, Pandalus borealis and Chaetognata. The niche width index was also calculated for these species.