A new compilation of stomach content data for commercially-important pelagic fish species in the Northeast Atlantic

Type Article
Date 2015
Language English
Other localization http://zenodo.org/record/31337
Author(s) Pinnegar J. K.1, Goni N.2, Trenkel VerenaORCID3, Arrizabalaga H.2, Melle W.4, Keating J.5, Oskarsson G.6
Affiliation(s) 1 : Ctr Environm Fisheries & Aquaculture Sci Cefas, Lowestoft NR33 0HT, Suffolk, England.
2 : AZTI Fundazioa, Pasaia 20110, Gipuzkoa, Spain.
3 : Inst Francais Rech Exploitat Mer IFREMER, F-44311 Nantes, France.
4 : IMR, N-5817 Bergen, Norway.
5 : Galway Mayo Inst Technol GMIT, Marine & Freshwater Res Ctr, Galway, Ireland.
6 : Mission Res Inc, IS-121 Reykjavik, Iceland.
Source Earth System Science Data (1866-3508) (Copernicus Gesellschaft Mbh), 2015 , Vol. 7 , N. 1 , P. 19-28
DOI 10.5194/essd-7-19-2015
WOS© Times Cited 14
Note Special Issue : EURO-BASIN data compilations for an integrated analysis of living resources in the North Atlantic Ocean Editor(s): G. Melvin and Y.-W. Luo
Abstract There is increasing demand for information on predator-prey interactions in the ocean as a result of legislative commitments aimed at achieving sustainable exploitation. However, comprehensive datasets are lacking for many fish species and this has hampered development of multispecies fisheries models and the formulation of effective food-web indicators. This work describes a new compilation of stomach content data for five pelagic fish species (herring, blue whiting, mackerel, albacore and bluefin tuna) sampled across the northeast Atlantic and submitted to the PANGAEA open-access data portal (www.pangaea.de). We provide detailed descriptions of sample origin and of the corresponding database structures. We describe the main results in terms of diet composition and predator–prey relationships. The feeding preferences of small pelagic fish (herring, blue whiting, mackerel) were sampled over a very broad geographic area within the North Atlantic basin, from Greenland in the west, to the Lofoten Islands in the east and from the Bay of Biscay northwards to the Arctic. This analysis revealed significant differences in the prey items selected in different parts of the region at different times of year. Tunas (albacore and bluefin) were sampled in the Bay of Biscay and Celtic Sea. Dominant prey items for these species varied by location, year and season. This data compilation exercise represents one of the largest and most wide-ranging ever attempted for pelagic fish in the north Atlantic. The earliest data included in the database were collected in 1864, whereas the most recent were collected in 2012.
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Pinnegar J. K., Goni N., Trenkel Verena, Arrizabalaga H., Melle W., Keating J., Oskarsson G. (2015). A new compilation of stomach content data for commercially-important pelagic fish species in the Northeast Atlantic. Earth System Science Data, 7(1), 19-28. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-7-19-2015 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00195/30641/