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A comparative study of the cephalopod prey of Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) and southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) near Macquarie Island

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Abstract

Within the Southern Ocean, Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides Smitt) and southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina Linnaeus) forage mainly on fish and cephalopods. From what is known of their diets, the proportion of fish is greatest in toothfish diet. When foraging at-sea for squid, elephant seals and toothfish most often co-occur over continental shelves and submarine plateaux surrounding sub-Antarctic land masses within the Southern Ocean. I used traditional (non-molecular) techniques to compare the squid diet of these two predators. Of the 21 squid species identified, 10 were common to the diets of both predators. One species, Gonatus antarcticus, dominated (61%) the biomass of squid consumed by toothfish, but was of little importance to the elephant seals (2.3%). By contrast, Martialia hyadesi was the most important single species to the elephant seals’ diet (29%), but it contributed 1% to the toothfish diet. Onychoteuthids (Kondakovia longimana, Moroteuthis ingens and Morotenthis knipovitchi) were important to both predators’ diets. The median sizes of five cephalopod species (Slosarczykovia circumantarctica, Galiteuthis glacialis, Gonatus antarcticus, Moroteuthis ingens and Moroteuthis knipovitchi) which were common to both the seal and toothfish diets, were significantly larger in the toothfish stomachs than in the elephant-seal stomachs. Percent similarity indices for the squids that overlapped both diets were in some cases as high as 100%. However, after between-species differences in prey size consumption were accounted for, the similarities fell to between 20 and 50%. These results indicate that the strength of the trophic interaction between the seals and the fish might be weaker than previously thought. The consumption of significantly different-sized squid can also be used to suggest spatial (vertical) foraging separation of these two predators because there is evidence for ontogenetic change in the size of squid species with depth; older, and thus larger, squids live deeper than smaller individuals of the same species.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge Dr. Simon Goldsworthy (Monash University, Victoria, Canada) and Dick Williams (Australian Antarctic Division) who made the toothfish squid beak samples available for this analysis, and also made very valuable suggestions to early manuscript drafts. Dr. C.C. Lu identified the whole squids recovered from toothfish stomachs. Patagonian toothfish stomach samples were collected and sorted under the research project jointly funded by the Australian Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC), CSIRO Marine Research, Australian Antarctic Division, and Austral fisheries Pty. (FRDC Project 97/122). At Macquarie Island, the elephant seals were anaesthetised and stomach lavaged with the approval of the Antarctic Animal Care and Ionising Radiation Usage Ethics Committee (Department of the Environment, Commonwealth of Australia), and permit from the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service (Department of Primary Industries, Water and Energies). Special thanks go to Clive McMahon, Paul Davis and Harry Burton for their efforts in stomach lavaging elephant seals at Macquarie Island, Steve Candy (Australian Antarctic Division) and Richard Fraccaro (Statistica, Melbourne, Australia) for their help and advice with the maths. Dr. Uwe Piatkowski very kindly shared useful insights into the life-styles of the squids Psychroteuthis and Alluroteuthis. Several anonymous referees contributed greatly to the final form of this paper and are thanked for their efforts. Dr. Yves Cherel identified the beaks from Slosarczykovia circumantarctica.

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  1. Australian Antarctic Division, Channel Highway, Kingston, Tasmania, 7050, Australia

    John van den Hoff

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van den Hoff, J. A comparative study of the cephalopod prey of Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) and southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) near Macquarie Island. Polar Biol 27, 604–612 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-004-0628-y

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