FAO Fisheries & Aquaculture

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Fisheries and for a world without hunger Aquaculture Department

With the exception of top predators, the distinction between predators and prey is largely artificial. The group of species included here as forage species are those which are the prey of the important commercial species in the LAPE area. In some cases there are directed fisheries for these species as well, but for the most part they are too small or otherwise of no interest to fisheries.

The small pelagic fishes are split into a coastal and an offshore component. The offshore group includes some of the same species as the inshore group as well as juveniles of a variety of pelagic, reef or coastal predators. An important distinction is the absence of any fisheries directed at the offshore component.

Functional group 20: Small offshore pelagics Examples of the small offshore pelagics identified on the ecosystem survey conducted by the LAPE project included:

Longfin cigarfish Cubiceps gracilis Man-of-war fish Nomeus gronovii Pilotfish Naucrates ductor Atlantic bumper Chloroscombrus chrysurus Mackerel scad Decapterus macarellus Round scad Decapterus punctatus Bigeye scad Selar crumenophthalmus

Functional group 21: Small coastal pelagics This group is made of mostly small schooling species found in near-shore waters. They are fished with beach seines for both human consumption and increasingly as a source of bait for large pelagic

Atlantic bumper Chloroscombrus chrysurus

Mackerel scad Decapterus macarellus Round scad Decapterus punctatus Bluntnose jack Hemicaranx amblyrhynchus Bigeye scad Selar crumenophthalmus Threadfin scad Dorosoma petenense False herring Harengula clupeola Redear herring Harengula humeralis Scaled herring Harengula jaguana Spratt Harengula pensacolae

FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department Dwarf round herring Jenkinsia lamprotaenia Atlantic thread herring Opisthonema oglinum American coastal pellona Pellona harroweri Yellowfin herring Pliosteostoma lutipinnis Round sardinella Sardinella aurita Brazilian sardinella Sardinella brasiliensis Broad-striped anchovy Anchoa hepsetus Little anchovy Anchoa parva Common halfbeak Hyporhamphus unifasciatus Sargassum pelagicus Syngnathus pelagicus Balao halfbeak Hemiramphus balao Ballyhoo Hemiramphus brasiliensis American harvestfish Peprilus paru

Functional group 22: Small mesopelagic fish This is a large and taxonomically heterogenous group. The dominant groups are the orders Myctophiformes and Stomiiformes. Virtually all are small, black and difficult to identify. Most species bear light emitting organs and many make daily vertical migrations from below 400m in the day to near surface at night. Species with no common names have the family common name in parentheses.

(lanternfish) Diaphus dumerilii

Topside lanternfish Notolychnus valdiviae (lanternfish) Lepidophanes guentheri (lanternfish) Lampanyctus alatus Warming's lanternfish Ceratoscopelus warmingi Sloane’s viperfish Chauliodus sloani (bristlemouth) Manducus maderensis Ribbon sawtail fish (dragonfish) Idiacanthus fasciola Lovely hatchetfish Argyropelecus aculeatus (dragonfish) Heterophotus ophistoma

Functional group 23: Large mesopelagic fish This is a large and taxonomically heterogenous group. Many of these species make daily vertical migrations from below 400m in the day to near surface at night.

Snake mackerel Gempylus serpens

Longnose lancetfish Alepisaurus ferox Oilfish Ruvettus pretiosus Atlantic pomfret Brama brama

FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department Functional group 26: Small squid Families of squid which reach adult sizes less than 50cm mantle length, e.g. Gonatidae.

Functional group 27: Large squid Families of squid which reach adult sizes of greater than 50cm mantle length e.g. Architeuthidae or Onychoteuthidae

Functional group 28: Small zooplankton This is a large and taxonomically heterogenous group of plankton species, defined in terms of size as micro- or meso-plankton (<4cm). The largest fraction of the group is crustaceans, in particular copepods.

Functional group 29: Large zooplankton This is a large and taxonomically heterogenous group of plankton species, defined in terms of size as macro- plankton (>4cm). Important components of this group include large crustaceans (e.g. euphausiids and shrimp) and jellyfish.

FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department