Steimle, F.W., R.A. Pikanowski, D.G. McMillan, C.A. Zetlin & S.J. Wilk. (2000). Demersal fish and American lobster diets in the lower Hudson-Raritan estuary. NOAA (National Oceanic and Atomospheric Administration) National Marine Fisheries Service, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Woods Hole, Massachusetts,Technical Memorandum. NMFS-NE-161:106 pp.

558000

Steimle, F.W., R.A. Pikanowski, D.G. McMillan, C.A. Zetlin & S.J. Wilk

2000

NMFS-NE-161:106 pp.

Publication

http:// https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/3236

Available for editors   [request]

Characterizing the demersal fish food web in the Hudson-Raritan Estuary is important for understanding specifically how this estuary is used by fishery resources. Knowledge of fish food webs and essential fish forage resources of the estuary can support habitat management decisions. Little is known about diets of the community of fish and the American lobster (Homarus americanus) that inhabit this estuary, although it is a major estuarine complex in the Northeast that continues to support fisheries. To gain insight into trophic and habitat functions in this estuary, the diets of the most abundant demersal fish species and the American lobster were examined. These predators were collected by trawl in various parts of the Hudson-Raritan Estuary over six seasons, July 1996 through November 1997. The most widely preyed-upon taxa were crustaceans, such as: small or juvenile decapods (e.g., sevenspine bay or sand shrimp (Crangon septemspinosa), hermit crabs (Pagurus spp.), juvenile Atlantic rock crabs (Cancer irroratus), lady crabs (Ovalipes ocellatus), and mud crabs (Xanthidae)); the mysid Neomysis americana; and several amphipod species. Clam siphons, primarily from the northern quahog (Mercenaria mercenaria) and Atlantic surfclam (Spisula solidissima), were commonly preyed upon by winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus), as well as by scup (Stenotomus chrysops) and spot (Leiostomus xanthurus) during some seasons. The diets of common fish and the American lobster in the humanstressed Hudson-Raritan Estuary are similar to those in other, less-stressed estuaries in the Middle Atlantic Bight.

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