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Interactions between bluefish and striped bass: Behavior of bluefish under size- and number-impaired conditions and overlap in resource use
Authors:Jeffrey A Buckel  Jeffrey P Pessutti  Jason S Link
Institution:a Department of Zoology, Center for Marine Sciences and Technology, North Carolina State University, 303 College Circle, Morehead City, NC 28557 USA
b NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, James J. Howard Marine Sciences Laboratory, 74 Magruder Road, Highlands, NJ 07732 USA
c NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, 166 Water Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543 USA
Abstract:A decline in bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix L.) recreational landings during the 1990s and the early 2000s led to multiple theories on the ultimate cause. One theory was that a large portion of the bluefish population moved offshore and was unavailable to nearshore recreational fishers; one reason given for the movement offshore was increased competition with striped bass (Morone saxatilis W.). We conducted laboratory experiments (feeding and non-feeding) to examine behavioral interactions between adult bluefish and sub-adult striped bass in a large (121,000 L) research aquarium. Additionally, we examined diet and habitat overlap of bluefish and striped bass from the fall and spring bottom trawl surveys conducted by the National Marine Fisheries Service. Observations of feeding trials for the following treatments were made: non-impaired (i.e., same number and size of bluefish and striped bass), size-impaired (i.e., large striped bass/small bluefish), number-impaired (i.e.,10 striped bass/3bluefish), and single-species controls. Within a species, there was no difference in a variety of behavioral measures (e.g., attack rate, capture success, ingestion rate, and activity) between mixed- and control treatments under non-impaired or size-impaired conditions. However, behavior of number-impaired bluefish differed from control and size-impaired fish suggesting that striped bass may have a negative influence on bluefish foraging when bluefish are “out-numbered”. Feeding had a strong effect on swimming speeds for both species. Diet and habitat overlap between bluefish and striped bass in continental shelf waters was low. Overall, foraging behavior in mixed-species treatments and field observations suggest no competitive interactions between adult bluefish and sub-adult striped bass.
Keywords:Bluefish  Striped bass  Competition  Diet overlap  Habitat overlap
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