Xiphias Gladius Stomach Content Analysis Is an in Zones a and B, Fish Were Stored Linnaeus, 1758, Is a Mesopelagic Important Tool in Ecological and in Ice
The diet of the swordfish tained from a longline vessel between 1 and 15th March 1991 by using Xiphias gbdius Linnaeus, mackerel, Scomber spp., as bait. 1 758, in the central east Atlantic, Zone C Gulf of Guinea (3O09'- 0°36'N and 26O27'-4O17'W). Fifteen with emphasis on the role of swordfish (standard length [SL] between 140-209 cm) were selected cephalopods on the basis of the presence of cephalopods in their stomachs. Vicente Hernández-García These were taken from catches Dpto de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar made by a longliner between May Univ. de Las Palmas de G. Canaria and July of 1991 by using mackerel C P 350 1 7, Canary Islands, Spain and squid, Illex sp., as bait. Stomach preservation and analysis The swordfish Xiphias gladius Stomach content analysis is an In zones A and B, fish were stored Linnaeus, 1758, is a mesopelagic important tool in ecological and in ice. After landing, fish were mea- teleost with a cosmopolitan distri- fisheries biology studies. Oceanic sured from the tip of the lower jaw bution between 45"N anci 45"s iati- vertebrates are often more efficient to the fork of the taii (S¿). During tude. It is an opportunistic preda- collectors of cephalopods than any commercial operations the internal tor feeding mainly on pelagic ver- available sampling gear (Bouxin organs were removed before the tebrates and invertebrates (Palko and Legendre, 1936; Clarke, 1966). fish were weighed. The stomach et al., 1981). The diet. of the sword- The p'irpose nf thir st11dy was to rnntents nf earh fish, incli~dingal1 fish has been studied mainly in the expand knowledge of the diet of the hard parts found in the stomach western Atlantic Ocean (Tibbo et swordfish from the central east At- wall folds (otoliths, very small al., 1961; Scott and Tibbo, 1968, lantic Ocean, with special emphasis beaks, and lenses), were weighed 1974; Toll and Hess, 1981; Stillwell on the role of cephalopod species.
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