RT journal article
T1 Feeding habits of two shark species: velvet belly, Etmopterus spinax (Linnaeus, 1758) and blackmouth catshark, Galeus melastomus (Rafinesque, 1810), present in fishing discards in the Gulf of Cádiz
A1 Rodríguez García, Carlos
A1 Gonçalves Neto, José Belquior
A1 García Romero, Cinthya
A1 Domínguez Bustos, Ángel Rafael
A1 Cabrera Castro, Remedios
A2 Biología
K1 Bycatch
K1 Deep-water shark
K1 Diet
K1 Elasmobranchs
K1 Trawl fishery
AB In many fisheries, such as trawl fisheries, sharks appear among the catches as bycatch or discards, and these species include velvet belly (Etmopterus spinax) and blackmouth catshark (Galeus melastomus). The objective of this study was to research the feeding habits of both species in the Gulf of Cádiz and to identify possible differences in diet depending on size and time of day. The most frequent sizes were 12–16 cm for E. spinax and 14–20 cm for G. melastomus. Both species preyed mainly on euphausiaceans and teleosts; their Index of Relative Importance (IRI) per species were as follows: E. spinax 42.30% IRI, 21.66% IRI; G. melastomus 52.33% IRI, 27.26% IRI, respectively. Only Etmopterus spinax showed significant variation in diet as a function of the time of day (p < 0.05), although both species showed similar patterns of feeding throughout the day. With respect to size, E. spinax consumes more cephalopods and teleosts as its size increases, while G. melastomus increases its consumption of decapods.
PB Springer Science and Business Media B.V.
SN 1573-5133
YR 2024
FD 2024
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/32616
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/32616
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 07-nov-2026