Diet of nineteen mesopelagic fishes in the Gulf of Alaska

Abstract

A total of 1,607 stomachs from 19 species were analyzed to describe the food habits of the mesopelagic fishes in the Gulf of Alaska in 2007. Longfin dragonfish (Tactostoma macropus), Pacific viperfish (Chauliodus macouni), scaly wearyfish (Scopelosaurus adleri), Alaska dreamer (Oneirodes thompsoni), and northern pearleye (Benthalbella dentata) were the main piscivores observed. Myctophids were the dominant prey fish. Garnet lampfish (Stenobrachius nannochir), bigeye lanternfish bigeye lanternfish (Protomyctophum thompsoni), brokenline lanternfish (Lampanyctus jordani), highsnout bigscale (Melamphaes lugubris), shining tubeshoulder (Sagamichthys abei), and northern lampfish (Stenobrachius leucopsarus), fed mainly on calanoid copepods. Blue lanternfish (Tarletonbeania crenularis) and bluethroat argentine (Nansenia candida), fed mainly on larvaceans. California headlightfish (Diaphus theta), northern smoothtongue (Leuroglossus schmidti), Bathylagidae, and crested bigscale (Poromitra curilensis) ate different combinations of larvacean, euphausiids, calanoids, ostracods, gastropods, and chaetognaths. Pinpoint lampfish (Nannobrachium regale) consumed large amounts of shrimp and cephalopods. Barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) fed only on jellyfish.

View Online. (.pdf, 827 KB).