Author(s):

Bahar Bayhan, Tuncay Murat Sever

Abstract: The feeding of round sardinella, Sardinella aurita, was investigated in the Izmir Bay, central Aegean Sea of Turkey, during October 2010 - September 2011. Examined of the 434 stomach contents, 39 (9.0%) had emty. Most empty stomach were encountered during autumn (19.1%), followed by (8.0%) summer, winter (2.2%) and spring (2.0%). A total number of 14266 prey items and forty eight species were identified, belonging to six major groups: Polychaeta, Crustacea, Mollusca, Chaetognatha, Tunicate and Teleostei. 
Finally crustaceans (particularly copepods) were the most important food item in terms of index of relative importance. At least 31 copepod species were identified, where Calanoida, Oithona nana, Oncaea media and Oithona plumifera appeared all year round with %IRI ≥ 10.

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