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Diet composition and feeding habits of the pelagic thresher shark Alopias pelagicus in Eastern Central Pacific Ocean, Ecuadorian waters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 July 2020

Marcos D. Calle-Morán  and
Felipe Galván-Magaña Open the ORCID record for Felipe Galván-Magaña [Opens in a new window]
Marcos D. Calle-Morán*
Affiliation:
Posgrado en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), C.P. 04510, Ciudad de México, México
Felipe Galván-Magaña
Affiliation:
Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas (CICIMAR-IPN), Av. IPN s/n, Col. Playa Palo de Santa Rita, C.P. 23096, La Paz, Baja California Sur, México
*
Author for correspondence: Felipe Galván-Magaña, E-mail: galvan.felipe@gmail.com
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Abstract

The diet and feeding habits of the pelagic thresher shark Alopias pelagicus were analysed based on 104 stomachs (N = 84 females, 20 males) collected off Santa Rosa de Salinas, in the Ecuadorian Pacific. The sharks were caught between February 2008 and January 2009 in artisanal fisheries. The trophic spectrum of A. pelagicus included 19 prey items (10 cephalopods and 9 teleost fishes), the main four prey were the red flying squid Ommastrephes bartramii, jumbo squid Dosidicus gigas, the purpleback flying squid Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis and the South Pacific hake Merluccius gayi. The trophic niche was narrow (Bi = 0.2), thus the pelagic thresher could be considered a specialist predator. The analysis of dietary overlap showed high similarity between the diets of females and males (Cλ = 0.99), immature and mature females (Cλ = 0.81), immature and mature males (Cλ = 0.72), sizes of 141–230 cm TL and 231–321 cm TL (Cλ = 0.97), as well as sharks in rainy season and dry season (Cλ = 0.77). Using canonical of correspondence analysis (CCA), we found similarities in the diet for all categories recorded (sex: canonical r = 0.38, P = 0.97; sexual maturity stage: canonical r = 0.54, P = 0.31; sizes: canonical r = 0.55, P = 0.26; seasons of the year: canonical r = 0.61, P = 0.75). The trophic level estimated for A. pelagicus was 5.0, which is typical of top predators (quaternary consumers or tertiary carnivores).

Keywords

Alopias pelagicusdietary overlapEcuadorpelagic thresher sharktrophic leveltrophic niche width
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 100 , Issue 5 , August 2020 , pp. 837 - 845
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2020

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