Diet Composition of Swordfish in the Gulf of Mexico

Legend

Locations for diet studies

Regional Sword sh Prey Comparisons

100 Figure 1.
Regional comparison of generalized prey items from
Percentage

swordfish diet studies. The x-axis are locations of

50
studies. The stars denote the method for evaluating
relative importance of prey items (* = %IRI, ** = %
0 weight).
Eastern Australia* Portugese Coast*** Strait of Gibralter* Aegean Sea** North Atlantic***
Azores*** Bay of Biscay*** Baja, California*** Canary Islands* Fish Cephalopods Crustaceans

Biology Problem Method

Size: Dockside sampling in Venice, Louisiana
Feeding ecology is somewhat
Identify stomach contents
known for swordfish in other Calculate % number, % weight, %
regions of the world frequency of occurrence to get the
< 15 ft Index of Relative Importance (Wells
However, no studies have been and Cowan 2008) to assess how
Max Weight:
done to assess diet composition important each prey item is overall
for swordfish in the Gulf of Mexico
100 lbs

Percent Index of Relative Importance (% IRI) Top 5 Most Important Prey Items (%IRI)
Myctophidae 22.75
Mugilidae 22.6
Clupeidae 19.18
Carangidae 12.29 #1 Lanternfishes #2 Mullet
Trichiuridae 10.25
Gempylidae 4.99
Loliginidae 4.77
Ommastrephidae 1.19
#3 Menhaden #4 Blue Runner
Sciaenidae 0.61
Stromateidae 0.45
Figure 2.
Panaeidae 0.43 Percent Index of Relative Importance
Scombridae 0.3 (% IRI) calculated for all identified prey
Bramidae 0.18 items in swordfish stomachs (n = 36).
#5 Atlantic Cutlassfish

Generalized % IRI for the Gulf of Mexico Key Takeaways

100 Swordfish rely most heavily on lanternfish and mullet in the Gulf of
93.61
Percentage

Mexico (~45% % IRI)

50 Prey species composed mostly of fish followed by cephalopods
5.96 0.43
and crustaceans
0
The exploitation of both deepwater and shallow-water species
Fish Cephalopods Crustaceans
shows how interconnected the deep and surface ocean really is.
Figure 3. % IRI for all identified prey items summed either as fish, cephalopods, or crustaceans.

Citations
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Northeast Atlantic swordfish (Xiphias gladius) off the Bay of Biscay. ICES
Journal of Marine Science, 63(6), 1075-1085.
Clarke, M. R., Clarke, D. C., Martins, H. R., & Silva, H. M. (1995). The diet of
swordfish (Xiphias gladius) in Azorean waters. ARQUIPÉLAGO. Ciências
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Hernández-García, V. 1995. The diet of the swordfish Xiphias gladius Linnaeus,
1758, in the central-east Atlantic, with emphasis on the role of cephalopods.
Fishery Bulletin.
Markaida, U., & Hochberg, F. G. (2005). Cephalopods in the Diet of Swordfish
(Xiphias gladius) caught off the West Coast of Baja California, Mexico1. Pacific
Science, 59(1), 25-41.
Moreira, F. 1990. Food of the swordfish, Xiphias gladius Linnaeus, 1758, off the
Portuguese coast. Journal of Fish Biology. 36(4): 623-624.
Salman, A. (2004). The role of cephalopods in the diet of swordfish (Xiphias
gladius Linnaeus, 1758) in the Aegean Sea (Eastern Mediterranean). Bulletin of
Marine Science, 74(1), 21-29.
Stillwell, C. E., & Kohler, N. E. (1985). Food and feeding ecology of the swordfish
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Wells, R. D., Cowan Jr, J. H., & Fry, B. (2008). Feeding ecology of red snapper
Lutjanus campechanus in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Marine Ecology Progress
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Young, J., Lansdell, M., Riddoch, S., & Revill, A. (2006). Feeding ecology of
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