Molluscs from the diets of commercially exploited fish off the coast of Victoria, Australia

Abstract

The diets of fifty-two commercially exploited species of fish, mostly collected off the coast of Victoria, were investigated through examination of stomach contents. Molluscs were found in the diets of twenty-six species but only provided a major proportion (> 30% by number, weight or volume) of the diets of eight species. Cephalopods, gastropods and bivalves were found in the diets of twenty-one, six and five species respectively. Arrow squid, Nototodarus gouldi, was the most widely identified of the species consumed, being found in the diets of eight species and being taken from the stomachs of fish collected over the whole geographical range of the survey. However, for those fish found to be major consumers of molluscs it was octopus, rather than squid, which provided the major molluscan component of the diet.