Derivation of diet compositions in the Lesser Antilles Pelagic Ecosystem

One of the medium-term objectives of the LAPE project is to enable fishery institutions in the Lesser Antilles to implement ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF) management of the pelagic fisheries. An immediate objective of LAPE is the formulation of a food web model of the ecosystem to better understand the effects of fisheries on predator–prey relationships, and of the effects of food web dynamics on fisheries. This report presents average diet compositions of the 29 predator func tional groups, which include seabirds, marine mammals, turtles, fish, squid and zooplankton, in the LAPE model. The data were obtained through field sampling and analysis of stomach contents of a number of species of large and medium sized pelagic fish and marine mammals, as well as through a comprehensive search of published and unpublished literature. Data from 131 studies, of which about 8 percent were from the LAPE area, were used to derive the average diet compositions presented in this report. Despite the scarcity of data from within the LAPE area itself, a reasonable amount of data on same or similar species was available from adjacent areas in the Western Atlantic, including the Caribbean, and other areas mainly in the Atlantic. As expected, the availability of diet information was directly related to the commercial importance of the species. The analysis presented here does not consider differences in diet compositions arising from predator ontogenic changes and size, or seasonal changes in diets. A major problem encountered in a number of the studies was the low level of taxonomic disaggregation of the prey and relatively high proportion of unidentified prey items. Further studies are needed to better quantify diet compositions of the species in the LAPE ecosystem, including non-commercial species that might play an important ecological role.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sherry Heileman, Elizabeth Mohammed and Paul Fanning;Fishery and Aquaculture Economics and Policy Division
Format: Project biblioteca
Language:English
Published: 2008
Online Access:https://openknowledge.fao.org/handle/20.500.14283/AJ260E
http://www.fao.org/3/a-aj260e.pdf
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