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Ontogenetic and seasonal variations in the feeding ecology of Indo-Pacific sailfish, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Istiophorus platypterus</i> (Shaw, 1792), of the eastern Arabian Sea

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Title Ontogenetic and seasonal variations in the feeding ecology of Indo-Pacific sailfish, Istiophorus platypterus (Shaw, 1792), of the eastern Arabian Sea
 
Creator Varghese, Sijo P.
Somvanshi, V. S.
Gulati, Deepak K.
 
Subject Indo-Pacific sailfish Istiophorus platypterus (Shaw, 1792)
Eastern Arabian Sea
Feeding ecology
Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis
Ontogenetic and seasonal differences in diet
Predator-prey relationship
 
Description 593-605
Present
study consists the studies on the stomach contents of Indo-Pacific
sailfish, Istiophorus platypterus
(Shaw, 1792), caught during tuna longline survey conducted in the western
Indian EEZ (eastern Arabian Sea) between 2006 and 2009 to investigate the
sexual, ontogenetic and seasonal effects in the diet. Stomachs of 290 specimens
in the forklength range of 101-261 cm were examined, of which 38 (13.10%) were
empty. Prey composition was assessed in terms of occurrence by number,
frequency of occurrence, weight and Index of Relative Importance. Quantile
regression techniques were used to determine the mean and upper and lower
bounds of the relation between prey size and sailfish length. Diet was
dominated by teleost fishes, followed by cephalopods while crustaceans were
represented in limited instances. Purpleback flying squid, Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis, was the most preferred prey species.
Other important prey species identified were Euthynnus affinis, Cubiceps
pauciradiatus, Gempylus serpens
and Onychoteuthis banksii. Diet did
not varied by sex, but the ontogenetic and seasonal variations in diet were
significant. The maximum and mean size of prey increased with length of
sailfish. However, relatively smaller prey constituted bulk of sailfish diet
and even large specimens consumed small prey.
 
Date 2013-12-13T12:17:54Z
2013-12-13T12:17:54Z
2013-09
 
Type Article
 
Identifier 0975-1033 (Online); 0379-5136 (Print)
http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/24784
 
Language en_US
 
Rights CC Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India
 
Publisher NISCAIR-CSIR, India
 
Source IJMS Vol.42(5) [September 2013]