About This Project

Spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus) is the most popular recreational species along the coast of Mississippi. Although we have a general understanding about the prey species spotted seatrout eat, stomach contents of fish collected during the day are often too digested to identify beyond broad categories like fish or shrimp. We will sample spotted seatrout from the late evening to early morning, a time believed to be their most active feeding period.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Stomach contents of predatory fish can provide a basic, yet effective, way to connect species within local food webs. Understanding such predator-prey relationships is particularly important for species, like spotted seatrout, that establish localized resident populations and feed on economically important species. Although spotted seatrout in Mississippi waters are considered generalist predators that experience seasonal changes in diet (Overstreet and Heard 1982), details of such changes are lacking. Furthermore, changes in foraging patterns during prolonged spawning seasons remain unknown. This study will allow us to examine the importance of seasonally-abundant prey species to spotted seatrout diet in Mississippi coastal waters.

What is the significance of this project?

As management agencies move towards holistic approaches that incorporate natural and human impacts, characterizing the interactions among species becomes increasingly important. Detailing the predator-prey relationships of economically important fish, like spotted seatrout, are particularly useful because they often feed on prey species that also experience human-related fishing pressure. Our study is designed to fill knowledge gaps that will provide a better understanding of the ecological role of spotted seatrout in Mississippi’s coastal waters. Such information can be used to help identify how natural and human-induced changes to the environment will affect spotted seatrout and their prey.

What are the goals of the project?

The main goal of this study is to describe the diet of spotted seatrout as it relates to fish size, maturation state, time of day, and sampling season. We will perform monthly sampling at a minimum of four fixed stations throughout the Mississippi coastal region. This sampling design will compliment an ongoing survey that provides additional stomach samples taken during the daytime. By extending our sampling efforts between dusk and dawn, we can estimate the average amount of food consumed by a spotted seatrout over a 24-hour period. Diet data will be paired with estimates from current spotted seatrout stock assessments to derive a population level consumption estimate for consumed prey groups (e.g. shrimp, crabs, and fish) that are also commercially and recreationally harvested.