First observation on the diet and feeding strategy of cloudy catshark Scyliorhinus torazame (Tanaka, 1908)

Abstract

Dietary studies of elasmobranch species are an essential component for developing management and conservation frameworks, because of their ecological importance as top predators in coastal marine ecosystems. The diets of cloudy catshark Scyliorhinus torazame were studied with the aid of 117 specimens collected from the southern sea of Korea. S. torazame was mainly piscivorous, but also ingested polychaetes and small amounts of benthic crustaceans. This dietary composition led to an estimated trophic level of 3.9 for the species. The diets of S. torazame changed significantly with season, but not length or sex of the sharks. Graphical analysis indicated that S. torazame is a benthic generalist feeder that consumes a variety of prey, but also showed high individual diet specialization. (c) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.