Diet composition and feeding habits of the pelagic thresher shark Alopias pelagicus in Eastern Central Pacific Ocean, Ecuadorian waters

The diet and feeding habits of the pelagic thresher shark Alopias pelagicus were analysed based on 104 stomachs (N = 84 females, 20 males) collected off Santa Rosa de Salinas, in the Ecuadorian Pacific. The sharks were caught between February 2008 and January 2009 in artisanal fisheries. The trophic spectrum of A. pelagicus included 19 prey items (10 cephalopods and 9 teleost fishes), the main four prey were the red flying squid Ommastrephes bartramii, jumbo squid Dosidicus gigas, the purpleback flying squid Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis and the South Pacific hake Merluccius gayi. The trophic niche was narrow (B_i = 0.2), thus the pelagic thresher could be considered a specialist predator. The analysis of dietary overlap showed high similarity between the diets of females and males (C_λ = 0.99), immature and mature females (C_λ = 0.81), immature and mature males (C_λ = 0.72), sizes of 141-230 cm TL and 231-321 cm TL (C_λ = 0.97), as well as sharks in rainy season and dry season (C_λ = 0.77). Using canonical of correspondence analysis (CCA), we found similarities in the diet for all categories recorded (sex: canonical r = 0.38, P = 0.97; sexual maturity stage: canonical r = 0.54, P = 0.31; sizes: canonical r = 0.55, P = 0.26; seasons of the year: canonical r = 0.61, P = 0.75). The trophic level estimated for A. pelagicus was 5.0, which is typical of top predators (quaternary consumers or tertiary carnivores).