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Fishery Bulletin 92(3). 1994 



biomass over time illustrates trends in the predator- 

 prey association not evident in the pooled data (Table 

 3 ). For example, there was an apparent proportional 

 consumption association ( level of prey consumption was 

 closely associated with level of abundance) for the 

 anemone C. americanus at all stations, although the 

 strength of the association varied at times (Fig. 2). 



However, the proportional contribution of the poly- 

 chaete P. affinis to winter flounder diets was greater 

 than the prey's proportional contribution to total 

 benthic macrofaunal biomass (Table 3, Fig. 3). The 

 contribution of this prey to the winter flounder diet 

 generally paralleled its contribution to macrofaunal 

 biomass at all stations during the study period. Peaks 

 in consumption are often consistent with peaks in 

 proportional contribution to total community bio- 

 mass, especially at stations NY6 and NYU (Fig. 3). 

 For the entire study period, the difference in propor- 

 tional consumption and biomass for P. affinis ranged 

 from 9.3 fold at station NY6 (25.1% stomach volume 

 vs. 2.7% benthic biomass; K=0.Q1) to 1.8 fold at sta- 

 tion R2 (76.3% volume vs. 42.8% biomass; if =0.25); 

 station NY11 had an intermediate difference of 3.7 

 fold and if =0.70 (Table 3). 



Some benthic species that were dominant in the 

 overall benthic biomass were seldom identified in the 



flounder stomachs. For example, the rhynchocoel C. 

 lacteus, which was particularly abundant at station 

 NY6, was not often found in flounder stomachs, de- 

 spite its relative importance in the benthic biomass 

 (Table 3). This underutilization of potential prey was 

 also evident at station NYU, where the polychaetes, 

 Glycera spp. (mostly G. dibranchiata) and Spio 

 setosa, as well as several mollusc species, composed 

 >5% of the mean macrofauna biomass but were never 

 important items in the flounder diet (Table 3). How- 

 ever, a substantial portion of the small, unidentified 

 polychaete fragments found in some winter flounder 

 stomachs may have been S. setosa. The predation- 

 abundance trends over the study period for these and 

 other less common prey are not presented but were 

 similar to the trends presented for C. americanus 

 (Fig 2). 



In general, there was little evidence of predation 

 on molluscs by winter flounder, despite their some- 

 times high contribution to overall macrofaunal bio- 

 mass. For example, the minute (<5 mm shell width ) 

 Atlantic nut clam, Nucula proxima, a consistent, al- 

 though only moderate component of the infaunal bio- 

 mass, was not commonly found in winter flounder 

 stomachs (Table 3). 



