NOTE Cherel et al.: Importance of Hyaloteuthis pelagica in the eplpelagic cephalopod community of tfie tropical Atlantic Ocean 



149 



Discussion 



This study is the first, to our knowledge, to point out 

 the abundance of H. pelagica in the tropical pelagic 

 ecosystem. In the central Atlantic Ocean, H. pelagica 



was found as a prey of all the fish species that were 

 investigated. When looking at both the proportion by 

 mass of cephalopods in the fish diet (Table 1) and the 

 proportion by number of H. pelagica in their cephalopod 

 diet (Table 2), H. pelagica was a major prey of white 



