Abstract
A total of 126 sword-fish ( Xiphias gladius ) stomach were analyzed. The stomachs were obtained from specimens captured within the 25o to 34oS and 78o to 90oW area, by industrial longline vessels. Only 72 (57.1%) of the total stomach had food items in their stomachs, whit a sex proportion of 32 males (44.4%), 37 females (51.4%) and 3 indeterminate (4.2%). Traditional methods for the stomach contents analysis such as the numeric, frequency of occurrence, gravimetric and index of relative importance (IRI) were used. Cephalopods were the main food items (%IRI > 90) followed by the fishes (%IRI < 4). The squid ( Dosidicus gigas ) was the principal food in this study (%IRI = 85.1). No significant differences were found between the feeding of males and females of swordfishes (U = 81; p = 0.4862, p < 0.05). A cluster analysis showed higher stomach contents similarity between fall and winter than those from spring, within the size groups the I group was different than others and finally, the feeding from zone 3 were different from others zones.
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