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ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil 2005 62(5):897-907; doi:10.1016/j.icesjms.2005.03.004
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© 2005 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea

Analysis of prey size preference of North Sea whiting, saithe, and grey gurnard

Jens Floeter* and Axel Temming

Zentrum für Meeres und Klimaforschung, Institut für Hydrobiologie und Fischereiwissenschaft Olbersweg 24, D22767 Hamburg, Germany

*Correspondence to J. Floeter: tel: +49 40 42838 6611; fax: +49 40 42838 6618. e-mail: jfloeter{at}uni-hamburg.de.

Size preference for prey fish of North Sea whiting, saithe, and grey gurnard was analysed. The analysis combined size-specific prey abundance estimates derived from bottom-trawl surveys with size frequencies of prey in predator stomachs from the International North Sea Stomach Database. To estimate the abundance of all potential prey fish in the sea, predator-specific length-based number spectra were calculated. Prey spectra were weighted by local predator abundance to take the spatial–temporal overlap between predator and their prey into consideration. Species-specific prey size preference models are presented. Contrary to former results, the preferred predator–prey weight ratio of whiting and grey gurnard is an exponentially increasing function of predator size and an exponentially decreasing function of the slope of the number spectrum. When predators grow, they prefer larger prey in absolute units. However, from a species-specific body size onwards they increasingly shift their prey preference towards relatively smaller prey sizes. From a bioenergetic point of view, this behaviour most likely maximizes the predator's foraging efficiency by reducing the expenditure of costly, anaerobically generated energy expended during burst swimming.

Keywords: bioenergetics, biomass spectrum, diet selection, gurnard, optimal foraging, prey size preference, saithe, whiting

Received 22 December 2003; accepted 18 March 2005.


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