Feeding of hake and a first attempt at determining their trophic role in the South African west coast marine environment

Abstract

During intensive biannual demersal fish-sampling cruises since January 1983 over the South African west coast shelf region (Orange River to Cape Agulhas, coast to 500-m isobath), feeding studies on both species of Cape hake (Merluccius capensis and M. paradoxus) were undertaken. These studies were of two forms, random sampling of the dietary preference and constituents of the hake caught during daylight only and intensive sampling of stomachs with food throughout a 28-hour cycle. From the index of relative importance, crustaceans were shown to be most important in the majority of length classes of hake studied, with mesopelagics (fish and cephalopods) and other hake also important. Differences by hake species, by predator size, by geographical location and by season were evident. The Cape hakes, which constitute some three-quarters of the demersal fish biomass in the area, are deduced to play a major role in the marine faunal environment, both as predators and prey, and some base-line figures of the quantities of different food items consumed by the resource are presented. Hake are largely opportunistic feeders and it is concluded that they can adapt to perturbations in the availability of prey, whether they be triggered by environmental cause or by, for example, purse-seining of particularly mesopelagic fish.