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Feeding ecology of the blacktip sawtail catshark Galeus sauteri from northeastern Taiwan

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Abstract

Small-bodied sharks are recognized as mesopredators on different communities in a large variety of habitats, thus linking the trophic levels in the marine ecosystem. Dietary analysis on these species can provide insight into the trophic relationships in food webs. Our study analyzed the diet composition of Galeus sauteri, an abundant small shark inhabiting neritic shelf waters at depths between 60 and 200 m. For this purpose, a stomach content analysis was realized in 678 specimens collected by bottom trawlers off northeastern Taiwan from September 2018 to August 2019. The two most commonly consumed preys were teleosts (prey-specific index of relative importance, %PSIRI = 51.94) and crustaceans (%PSIRI = 30.08).The results for the Levin’s index (Ba = 0.06) and graphical analysis based on the Costello method revealed a high degree of specialization on lanternfishes and other teleosts. The mean trophic position was 4.29. Feeding habits differed significantly in relation to maturity condition and between seasons. Our result showed that G. sauteri is a primary piscivorous shark that preys mainly on lanternfishes and other teleosts, and feeds opportunistically on crustaceans and cephalopods.

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Acknowledgements

We thank F.-L. Chang and T.-T. Lee, fish buyers from Daxi port, for providing the specimens. We sincerely thank Dr. K.-M. Liu (NTOU), Dr. W.-D. Chiu, and Dr. Y.-Y. Liao (NKUST) for improving the manuscript. We thank Dr. T.-Y. Chan (NTOU), for assistance with crustacean species identification. We thank C.-P. Chin and K.-Y. Su (NTOU) for help with statistical analysis.

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  1. Department of Environmental Biology and Fisheries Science, National Taiwan Ocean University, no.2, Beining Road, Zhongzheng District, Keelung, Taiwan

    Shing-Lai Ng & Shoou-Jeng Joung

  2. George Chen Shark Research Centre, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan

    Shoou-Jeng Joung

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Correspondence to Shoou-Jeng Joung.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Samples were captured by commercial trawlers as bycatch and were not alive before landing in fishing port. This bycatch was sold for utilization in fish meal. The authors collected these specimens from fish markets. This sampling approach does not violate the Animal Protection Act of the Council of Agriculture, Taiwan. This shark is not under protection.

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Ng, SL., Joung, SJ. Feeding ecology of the blacktip sawtail catshark Galeus sauteri from northeastern Taiwan. Fish Sci 88, 703–720 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12562-022-01628-8

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