For this study, the data were used to gain insight into: Continental Shelf during benthic surveys in the 1950s and 1960s, and during ecosystem sampling surveys beginning in 1973. The data were collected on the Northeast U.S. Smith and co-author Laurel Smith tested three models using decades of fisheries data that included diet and prey density. The study also looked at how those groups interact with their prey throughout the water column. Few studies, however, have looked simultaneously at the feeding patterns among different groups of predatory fish - fish feeders, plankton feeders, and benthic or bottom feeders. Researchers who study marine ecosystems need to account for this predation in their models. Photo: NOAA Fisheriesįeeding patterns within and among different groups of fish vary by the size of the fish, the abundance or density of the prey, and other factors. “We focused on common and important prey for the many predatory fish of interest, and hopefully filled in some gaps in information relating prey availability to predation.”Ītlantic cod is a groundfish, meaning it lives near the ocean floor. “We have the largest, continuous dataset of fish feeding habits in the world at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and that enabled us to do a study of this scale and scope,” said Brian Smith, a food habits researcher at the center and lead author of the study. Prey species included forage fish, squid, zooplankton, shrimp-like crustaceans, shellfish, brittle stars, sand dollars, and sea urchins. Fish predators included Atlantic cod, Atlantic herring, haddock, goosefish, pollock, spiny dogfish, winter flounder, and yellowtail founder among others. The predators are divided into 48 predator-size categories, and 14 prey species. The findings, published in Fish and Fisheries, provide a close look at fish feeding habits for 17 fish species, predators, and their prey. Scientists at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center have developed an unusually rich picture of who is eating whom off the Northeastern United States.
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