2000/05/01 by A. Bunce, F. I. Norman · 41 citations
Environmental Science · #Marine and fisheries research #Fish Ecology and Management Studies #Marine animal studies overview #Seabird #Pelagic zone #Biology #Bay #Fishery #Predation #Estuary #Invertebrate #Albatross #Fish <Actinopterygii> #Oceanography #Ecology
paper · doi:10.1071/mf99133
published in Marine and Freshwater Research 51(4), 349-353 (CSIRO Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2000/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
The diet of Australasian gannets ( Morus serrator ) breeding in Port Phillip Bay was investigated before and after a mass mortality of pilchards (Sardinops sagax) in southern Australian waters in 1998. Gannets usually feed on inshore pelagic schooling fish, such as pilchards and barracouta ( Thyrsites atun ), and to a lesser extent on other species. Pilchards represented ~60% of the gannet diet examined before the spread of pilchard deaths into Victorian waters, but this component declined to 5% following the mortality event. This reduction was compensated by a substantial increase in the amount of barracouta taken, supporting the view that the gannet is a flexible forager. However, the 1998 mortality of pilchards is likely to have wider implications since pilchards are an important prey for other piscivorous fish, seabirds and marine mammals.