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Capelin (Mallotus villosus) availability influences the inshore summer diet of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) in coastal Newfoundland

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Abstract

In the early 1990s, the Atlantic cod (Gadusmorhua) population on the Newfoundland and Labrador shelf declined dramatically, leading to a fishing moratorium in 1992. The Northern cod population has not fully recovered, possibly due to the simultaneous population collapse of an important prey type, capelin (Mallotus villosus), which migrates from the continental shelf into coastal Newfoundland to spawn every summer. Our objective was to test whether capelin availability influenced short-term dietary shifts of cod while inshore on the northeast Newfoundland coast. We quantify the dietary composition and relative abundance and biomass of prey types in cod stomachs sampled weekly or bi-weekly throughout July-August 2017 and 2018. Survey-based acoustic estimates of capelin biomass and the timing of spawning in the study area revealed that peak capelin biomass was five times higher (0.239 g/m2) and two weeks earlier (July 28) during 2018 relative to 2017 (0.048 g/m2, August 9). Cod stomachs were ~ 10 times more likely to contain capelin during 2018 relative to 2017. As capelin availability increased throughout each summer, cod shifted from a high diversity diet of lower-quality invertebrate prey (e.g., shrimp, crab) to a low diversity, capelin-dominated diet, whereby capelin presence, abundance and biomass increased. These findings indicate that capelin remains a primary prey type of cod in inshore waters during their summer growing season, but dietary proportions of capelin vary with their availability. As low dietary proportions of capelin are associated with reduced body condition and reproductive potential in cod, findings support the need for an integrated capelin-cod management approach.

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Data availability

The data sets used during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank P. Goodyear and T. Goodyear for providing cod samples, as part of the Sentinel Fishery program, and the captain and crew of the ‘Lady Easton’ for their assistance with capelin surveys. We also thank E. Jenkins, J. Gulka K. Johnson, L. Maynard, W. Ogloff, A. Tripp and M. Epp for assistance with field work. We also thank W.G. Anderson, J.R. Treberg and J.D. Roth for providing valuable feedback on the manuscript.

Funding

Principal funding was provided by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant (2014–06290) and NSERC Ship Time grants (501154-2017, 515517-2018) along with University of Manitoba Faculty of Science Field Work Support grants (2017, 2018) to GKD. MTB was funded by a University of Manitoba Undergraduate Research Award.

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  1. University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada

    Marissa T. Berard & Gail K. Davoren

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  1. Marissa T. Berard
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MTB collected and analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript. GKD conceived of and acquired funding for the project, as well as provided advice during data collection and analysis and manuscript writing. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Marissa T. Berard.

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Berard, M.T., Davoren, G.K. Capelin (Mallotus villosus) availability influences the inshore summer diet of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) in coastal Newfoundland. Environ Biol Fish 103, 771–782 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-020-00982-9

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