Feeding habits of the flying gurnard, Dactylopterus volitans (Linnaeus, 1758), on the continental shelf of Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire

Authors

1 Department of Aquatic Living Resources, Oceanological Research Centre, BP V 18 Abidjan, Abidjan,Côte d’Ivoire

2 Laboratory of Natural Environment and Biodiversity Conservation, University Felix Houphouët-Boigny, 22 BP 582 Abidjan 22, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

10.22092/ijfs.2026.135425

Abstract

The feeding habits of the flying gurnard, Dactylopterus volitans, caught by industrial trawlers operating on the continental shelf of Côte d'Ivoire were examined. A total of 1337 specimens, including 351 males and 986 females were collected at the fishing harbour of Abidjan from January 2019 to December 2020. The diet of fish with a size ranging from 60 to 390 mm standard length was described using the prey-specific index of relative importance (%PSIRI), combining occurrence, numerical and weight percentages. The stomach contents revealed that 901 (67.38%) stomachs were empty, whilst 436 (32.62%) were full. The diet was composed of twenty-six prey items including shrimps, teleost fishes, crabs, bivalves, gastropods and cephalopods. Based on the PSIRI (%), the most important prey items were shrimps (41.11 %PSIRI), especially Penaeus notialis (20.10 %PSIRI) and teleost fishes (31.87 %PSIRI). Crabs (19.38 %PSIRI) are considered as secondary preys, whereas the other preys such as cephalopods (4.95 %PSIRI), gastropods (1.38 %PSIRI) and bivalves (1.31 %PSIRI) were incidental preys. The presence of a variety of mobile preys in the stomachs indicates that this species is a carnivorous feeder.

Keywords

Iranian Journal of Fisheries Sciences
Volume 25, Issue 3
May 2026
Pages 401-413

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