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Food habits of the shortfin mako, Isurus oxyrinchus, off the southwest coast of Portugal

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Abstract

The shortfin mako, Isurus oxyrinchus, is caught in the eastern North Atlantic as a regular bycatch of the surface-drift longline fishery, mainly directed towards swordfish, Xiphias gladius. Stomachs of 112 shortfin mako sharks, ranging in size from 64 cm to 290 cm fork length, showed teleosts to be the principal component of the diet, occurring in 87% of the stomachs and accounting for over 90% of the contents by weight. Crustaceans and cephalopods were also relatively important in this species’ diet, whereas other elasmobranchs were only present in lower percentages. Meal overlap was observed in half of the sampled sharks. No clear trend of prey size selectivity was found, despite smaller individuals seeming incapable of pursuing larger and faster prey. The retention of small prey was also observed in the diet of all sizes of shark. Seasonality in food habits was in accordance with the current availability of food items. The observed vacuity index of 12% is comparable to foraging ecology studies using gillnetting and appears not to be influenced by baited longline gear. Morphological relationships of the digestive system might add important information to the foraging ecology studies and to ecosystem modelling.

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Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank the crews of the boats Algamar, Alfamar, Emiliano Pai, Filipa Miguel, Paula Filipa and Rapazinho and the fishing port personnel; special thanks to the staff and scientists from the Instituto de Oceanografia and the Portuguese Association for the Study and Conservation of Elasmobranchs – APECE and Maria José Costa, Joana Marques, Rita Vasconcelos for field and laboratory assistance and commenting on the manuscript; Enric Cortés for elucidation on some diet analysis methods; and one anonymous reviewer for valuable comments. Funding for this project was provided by APECE (http://www.apece.pt) and A. Maia was funded by ESF/Portuguese State under 1/3.2/PRODEP/2003.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biologia Animal & Instituto de Oceanografia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal

    Anabela Maia & Henrique Cabral

  2. CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Campus Agrário de Vairão, 4485-661, Vairão, Portugal

    Nuno Queiroz

  3. Oceanário de Lisboa, SA, Esplanada D. Carlos I – Doca dos Olivais, 1990-005, Lisboa, Portugal

    João P. Correia

Authors
  1. Anabela Maia
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  2. Nuno Queiroz
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  3. João P. Correia
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  4. Henrique Cabral
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Correspondence to Anabela Maia.

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Maia, A., Queiroz, N., Correia, J.P. et al. Food habits of the shortfin mako, Isurus oxyrinchus, off the southwest coast of Portugal. Environ Biol Fish 77, 157–167 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-006-9067-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-006-9067-7

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