Apr. 10, 2013 —
A recent study has shown that bottom-dwelling goosefish, also known as
monkfish, prey on dovekies, a small Arctic seabird and the smallest member of
the puffin family. To understand how this deep-water fish finds a
shallow-feeding bird in offshore waters, researchers looked at when, where, and
how these animals were most likely to be in the same place at the same time.
Remains of
fourteen dovekie were recovered from the stomachs of 14 goosefish caught during
the winters between 2007 and 2010. The goosefish were captured in gillnets
deployed at depths between 275 and 495 feet in waters 65 to 95 miles south of
Chatham, Mass. The Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen's Association collected
the specimens and provided them for the research study.
Researchers
from NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) in Woods Hole, Mass. and
the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md., wanted to know how
the birds could be captured so far from shore by a fish that lives on the ocean
bottom in deep water. Their findings, recently published online in the Northeastern
Naturalist, suggest that it is all a matter of timing.
Goosefish (Lophius
americanus) are highly opportunistic predators. Distributed from the Gulf of Maine
to Cape Hatteras , N.C.
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