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Diet composition of smooth-hound shark, Mustelus mustelus (Linnaeus, 1758), in the Gulf of Gabès, southern Tunisia

2009; Wiley; Volume: 25; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1439-0426.2009.01306.x

1439-0426

Béchir Saïdi, Samira Enajjar, Mohamed Nejmeddine Bradaï, Abderrahmen Bouaïn,

Fish Ecology and Management Studies

The diet of the smooth-hound shark, Mustelus mustelus, from the Gulf of Gabès (southern Tunisia, central Mediterranean Sea) was investigated with respect to fish size and season. Stomach contents were analyzed from 540 specimens with total lengths ranging from 34 to 158.5 cm. Of the total number of stomachs examined, 63 were empty (11.67%). Smooth-hound shark fed mainly on crustaceans, fishes and cephalopods. Sipunculids, polychaetes and echinoderms were occasional preys. No differences were found between the diets of males and females. Ontogenetic changes in diet of M. mustelus were apparent, with crustaceans forming a greater proportion of the diet of smaller sharks. Both teleosts and molluscs increased in importance with increasing shark size. Consumptions of polycheates, sipunculids and echinoderms were not related to predator size. Prey diversity also increased with size, with large and mobile prey species found more commonly in the diet of larger sharks. The limited overlap in the dietary compositions of juveniles, subadults and adults suggests the possibility of resource partitioning. Seasonality in food habits was in accordance with the dynamics of the predator and the prey species.