Abstract
Feeding peculiarities of mass pelagic planktonphagous fish from Canary upwelling water and frontal zones of Mauritania were investigated: European anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus, European sardine Sardina pilchardus, round sardinella Sardinella aurita and flat sardinella S. maderensis. European anchovy and flat sardinella feed mainly on zooplankton crustaceous (89 and 57% of food mass), while round sardinella and European sardine feed mainly on phytoplankton (58 and 55%). Detritus and detritus-algal units compose a significant part in feeding of round sardinella, European sardine and flat sardinella young. This provides the reasons to suppose that detritus in pelagic water of Mauritania serves as an additional diet component next to phyto and zooplanktons. Sea grasses covering an area of 390–490 km2 of shallows in the Gulf of Arguin are the most probable source of detritus.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Altenburg, W., Engelmoer, M., Mes, R., and Piersma, T., Wintering waders at the Banc d’Arguin, Mauritania, in Report of Netherlands Ornithological Expedition of 1980, Leiden: Stichting Veth tot Steun aan Waddenonderzoek, 1982.
Barkova, N.A. and Domanevsky, L.N., Some peculiarities of sardine distribution and spawning along the northwest Africa, in ICES. C.M. 1976/J: 6 Pelagic Fish (Southern) Community, 1976.
Bianchi, G., Carpenter, K.E., Roux, J.-P., et al., FAO species identification field guide for fishery purposes, in The Living Marine Resources of Namibia, Rome: FAO, 1993.
Bulgakova, Yu.V., Diurnal dynamics of nutrition of anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus in the Black Sea, Vopr. Ikhtiol., 1993, vol. 33, no. 7, pp. 78–88.
Da Silva Monteiro and Marques V. Peixes de Cabo Verde, Lisbon: Ministerio do Mar, Gabinete do Secreterio de Estado da Cultura, M2-Artes Greficas, 1998.
Demirhindi, U., Nutrition of the sardine (Sardina pilchardus Walb.), in Proc. General Fisheries Council for the Mediterranean FAO, 1961, no. 6, pp. 253–259.
Diouf P.S. Les peuplements de poissons des milieux estuariens de l’Afrique de l’Ouest: L’exemple de l’estuaire hyperhalin du Sine-Saloum, in Thèse présentée à l’Université de Montpellier II pour l’obtention du Diplomede Doctorat. Thèses et Doc. Microfiches № 156, Paris: ORSTOM, 1996.
Domanevsky, L.N., Ryby i rybolovstvo v nereticheskoi zone tsentral’no-vostochnoi Atlantike (Fishes and Fishery in Neritic Zone of the Central Eastern Atlantic), Kaliningrad: Atlant. Nauchno-Issled. Inst. Rybn. Khoz. Okeanogr., 1998.
Domanevsky, L.N. and Patokina, F.A., Nutrition of the large-eye dentex Dentex macrophthalmus (Bloch) and axillary seabream Pagellus acarne (Riss.) (Sparidae) from Central Eastern Atlantic, Vopr. Ikhtiol., 1984, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 767–772.
Domanevsky, L.N. and Patokina, F.A., Nutrition of mass fishes of Canary upwelling ecosystem, in Ekologicheskie rybokhozyaistvennye issledovaniya v Atlanticheskom okeane i Yugo-Vostochnoi chasti Tikhogo okeana (Ecological Fishery Studies in the Atlantic Ocean and Southeastern Pacific), Kaliningrad: Atlant. Nauchno-Issled. Inst. Rybn. Khoz. Okeanogr., 1988, pp. 14–30.
Gushchin, A.V., Feeding of fish young from littoral of the gulf Arguin (Mauritania), J. Ichthyol., 2013, vol. 53, no. 9, pp. 731–738.
Gushchin, A.V. and Khallagi Ould Mokhamad Fall, Ichthyofauna of littoral of the Gulf Arguin, Mauritania, J. Ichthyol., 2012, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 160–171.
James, A.G., Are clupeid microphagists herbivorous or omnivorous? A review of the diets of some commercially important clupeids, S. Afr. J. Mar. Sci., 1988, no. 7, pp. 161–177.
Metodicheskoe posobie po izucheniyu pitaniya i pishchevykh otnoshenii ryb v estestvennykh usloviyakh (Manual for Study of Nutrition and Food Relationships of Fishes in Natural Conditions), Moscow: Nauka, 1974.
Muus, B.J. and Nielsen, J.G., Sea Fish. Scandinavian Fishing Year Book, Denmark, 1999.
Nielaand, Y., Die Nahrung von Sardinen, sardinellen und Maifischen vor der Westkuste Afrikas, Inst. Meereskunde Chris. Alb. Univ. Kiel., 1980, no. 75.
Petrakis, G., Stergiou, K.I., Christou, E., et al., Small scale fishery in the south Euboikos Gulf, in Final Report. Contract XIV-1/MED-91/007, Athens, Hellas: Nat. Centre Mar. Res., 1993.
Rincon, M.C., Huq, M.F., and Ramirez-Arredondo, I., Aspectos alimenticios de la sardina, Sardinella aurita Valenciennes, 1847 (Pisces: Clupeidae) de los alrededores de la region noroccidental de la Peninsula de Araya y alrededores de las Islas de Coche y Cubagua, Venezuela, Bol. Inst. Oceanogr. Venezuela, Univ. Oriente, 1988, vol. 27, nos. 1–2, pp. 129–143.
Schmidt, W., Result of the UDDP (SF). FAO regional fisheries survey in West Africa. Rep. no. 1. Deep-scattering Sardinella aurita off Mauritania, Mar. Biol., 1972, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 91–101.
Tudela, S. and Palomera, I., Trophic ecology of the European anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus in the Catalan Sea (northwest Mediterranean), Mar. Ecol.: Progr. Ser., 1997. 160, pp. 121–134
Tudela, S., Palomera, I., and Quílez, G., Feeding of anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus larvae in the north-west Mediterranean, J. Mar. Biol. Assoc. U.K., 2002, vol. 82(2), pp. 349–350.
Valdés, E.S., Shelton, P.A., Armstrong, M.J., and Field, J.G., Cannibalism in South African anchovy: egg mortality and egg consumption rates, S. Afr. J. Mar. Sci., 1987, vol. 5, pp. 613–622.
Whitehead, P.J.P., FAO Species Catalogue, Vol. 7: Clupeoid Fishes of the World (Suborder Clupeioidei). An Annotated and Illustrated Catalogue of the Herrings, Sardines, Pilchards, Sprats, Shads, Anchovies and Wolf-Herrings, Part 1: Chirocentridae, Clupeidae and Pristigaste, 1985, no. 125(7/1).
Wolff, W.J. and Smit, C.J., The Banc d’Arguin, Mauritania, as an environment for coastal birds, Ardea, 1990, vol. 78, pp. 17–38.
Wolff, W.J., van der Land, J., Nienhuis, P.H., and de Wilde, P.A.W.J., The functioning of the ecosystem of Banc d’Arguin, Mauritania, Hydrobiologia, 1993, vol. 258, pp. 211–222.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Original Russian Text © A.V. Gushchin, A. Corten, 2015, published in Voprosy Ikhtiologii, 2015, Vol. 55, No. 1, pp. 54–62.
The article was translated by the author(s).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gushchin, A.V., Corten, A. Feeding of pelagic fish in waters of Mauritania: 1. European anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus, European sardine Sardina pilchardus, round sardinella Sardinella aurita, and flat sardinella S. maderensis . J. Ichthyol. 55, 77–85 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0032945215010063
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0032945215010063