SEDBERRY: FEEDING HABITS OF WHITEBONE PORGY 



are provided with incisors that are suited to 

 scraping epifauna (Stoner and Livingston 1984). 

 Predation by fishes and other organisms can 

 be an important factor in regulating the struc- 

 ture of sessile invertebrate communities (Peter- 

 son 1979; Sedberry 1987); however, it is obvious 

 from the present results that whitebone porgy 

 have little impact on hard-bottom epifaunal com- 

 munities. While they are an abundant and a dom- 

 inant member of the predatory fish community 

 (Sedberry and Van Dolah 1984), whitebone 

 porgy do not function as keystone predators 

 (Paine 1969) in hard bottom reefs of the South 

 Atlantic Bight. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



For theu" help in identification and confirma- 

 tion of prey items, 1 thank the following scien- 

 tists: D. M. Knott, amphipods; C. B. O'Rourke 

 and E. R. Hens, polychaetes; and E. L. Wenner, 

 decapods. D. M. Knott, R. F. Van Dolah, P. H. 

 Wendt, and E. L. Wenner provided the data on 

 invertebrate distribution and abundance for the 

 electivity analyses. P. H. Wendt and C.J. Moore 

 provided helpful reviews of the manuscript. This 

 work was supported with funds provided by the 

 Bureau of Land Management (Contract No. 

 AA551-CT9-27) and the Minerals Management 

 Service (Contract Nos. AA551-CT1-18 and 14- 

 12-0001-29185), U.S. Department of the Interi- 

 or; and the National Marine Fisheries Service 

 (South Carolina MARMAP contract No 50- 

 WCNF-7-06004). 



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