The diet of haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus L.) in the Barents Sea during the period 1984-1991

• Published in: ICES Journal of Marine Science
• Main Authors: Jiang, W., Jørgensen, T.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 1996
• Subjects: Articles; Barents Sea
• Online Access: http://icesjms.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/53/1/11; https://doi.org/10.1006/jmsc.1996.0002

An analysis of the diet of haddock in the Barents Sea based on 9500 stomachs collected between 1984 and 1991 is presented. The analysis was made on a quarterly basis for 10 cm fish length-classes. An overall 27% of the stomachs collected were empty and the average wet weight of the stomach contents was low for all size-classes (generally <10 g). By weight the prey categories Crustacea and Echinodermata made up an overall 60% of the diet, and fishes 20%. The ontogenetic change in the diet was small for haddock larger than 20 cm. Confidence limits for the estimated mean weight percentages were calculated using both theoretical variance estimators and bootstrapping. Precision was generally poor, with coefficients of variation typically in the range 0.4–0.6.