Consumption of deep-sea shrimp by bigeye flounder Hippoglossina macrops in fishing grounds off northern Chile

Feeding of the bigeye flounder Hippoglossina macrops on the shrimp Heterocarpus reedi was analysed between 20 November and 4 December 1995. Feeding on H. reedi intensified between 0900 and 1600 hours with a second, smaller peak between 2300 and 0200 hours. Assuming an exponential gastric evacuation model, the gastric evacuation rate was estimated as 0·197 % W h ^?1 (95% CI=0·025–0·369). The daily ration decreased latitudinally from north to south from 3·62 to 2·66 and from 2·06 to 0·41 %W , respectively. Consumption was related positively to shrimp biomass and influenced by flounder size structure in the three fishing zones analysed and was estimated as 0·08–0·02% of the total shrimp biomass.