2). In the Middle Atlantic, however, only seven Atlantic 

 cod stomachs were examined and yellowtail flounder 

 (33.7^t) was the most important prey. In Southern New 

 Elngland and on Georges Bank most of the clupeids could 

 be identified as Atlantic herring (27.1 and 31.4'(, re- 

 spectively). The only other clupeid identified to species 

 level was an alewife (0.9' c), from Georges Bank. 



A variety of other fish was eaten throughout the North- 

 west Atlantic and is listed by area as follows: Middle 

 Atlantic— red hake (12.9'(); winter flounder (10.0'c); 

 beardfishes, Polymyxiidae (9.0'c); cusk-eels, Ophidii- 

 dae (6.4%); sand lance, Ammodytes (2.7%); and the 

 longhom sculpin, Myoxocephalus octodecemspinosus 

 (1.5%). Southern New England — Atlantic mackerel 

 (6.4%); windowpane, Scophthalmus aquosus (1.9'(); 

 Cryptacanthodidae (2.8%); the Cottidae (1.1%); and a 

 seahorse. Hippocampus (0.2%). Georges Bank — 

 yellowtail flounder (3.4%); American plaice, Hippo- 

 glossoides platessoides (0.9%); summer flounder. Para- 

 lichthys dentatus (0.1%); windowpane (0.2%); the rock 

 gunnel, Pholis gunnellus (0.1%); sculpins such as the 

 grubby, Myoxocephalus aenaeus (<0.1%), the longhom 

 sculpin (0.5%), and the mailed sculpin, Triglops nybe- 

 lini (0.1%). Gulf of Maine — the scorpaenids, Helico- 

 lenus dactylopterus (1.9%) and Sebastes marinus (9.6%); 

 Atlantic mackerel (8.7%); wolffish, Anarhichadidae 

 (3.3%); Argentina sp. (3.2%); silver hake (1.6%); and the 

 wrymouth (0.4'c). Western Nova Scotia — sand Itmce 

 (11.3%); gadids, including silver hake (1.7%), haddock 

 (0.7%), and Atlantic cod (0.1%); Atlantic mackerel 

 (1.7%); redfish (0.9%); wolffish (0.2%); and the rock gun- 

 nel (0.1%). 



Crustacea were generally the second most important 

 group of prey and, like fish, a variety of different crusta- 

 ceans were consumed, but only the major groups will be 

 discussed here. In the Middle Atlantic the only crusta- 

 cean prey of any significance was hermit crabs, Paguri- 

 dae (3.8%), and rock crabs (2.5%). Crustaceans com- 

 posed 20.9% of the Atlantic cod's diet in Southern New 

 England; and the rock crabs (12.8%), Cancer borealis 

 (2.8%) and C. irroratus (1.8%), accounted for more than 

 half of this group. On Georges Bank, rock crabs (4.4%) 

 were again the most important crustacean prey but 

 pandalid shrimp (3.1%) [i.e., Dichelopandalus (2.3%)], 

 and hermit crabs, Pagurus (2.5%), also contributed to 

 the diet. In the Gulf of Maine rock crabs (5.9%) and 

 pandalid shrimp (2.8%) were again preyed upon but the 

 red crab, Geryon (10.1%), was the most important deca- 

 pod prey. Spider crabs (family Majidae) of the genus 

 Hyas (7.4%) and euphausiids (8.8%), such as Mega- 

 nyctiphanes (2.6%), were the primary crustacean prey in 

 Western Nova Scotia. Of secondary importance were the 

 Paguridae (2.2%) and the pandalid shrimp (3.9%), Di- 

 chelopandalus leptocerus (0.8%) and Pandalus montagui 

 (0.3%). 



Two other taxa were of some significance in two of the 

 geographic areas. In Southern New England polychaetes 

 of the suborder Nereidiformia made up 6.4% of the diet, 

 and this was entirely due to the sea mouse, Aphrodita. 

 The Mollusca accounted for 15.6'c of the prey on Georges 



Bank. The pelecypods contributed most of the weight 

 (9.4'( ), with the scallops, Placopecten (6.3%) and Pecten 

 (2.6%), accounting for the majority of the prey in this 

 group but these scallops may be scallop remains dis- 

 carded by fishermen since only scallop viscera and no ad- 

 ductor muscles were found in the stomachs. 



Pollock, Pollachius virens. — Because only six fish 

 were collected for stomach content analysis in Southern 

 New England and the Middle Atlantic, the following 

 discussion is limited to the other three areas (Table 3). 



The major prey of pollock on Georges Bank and in 

 Western Nova Scotia was crustaceans (71.6 and 61.2%, 

 respectively). In both of these areas euphausiids com- 

 prised more than one-half the diet. Of the euphausiids 

 identified, Meganyctiphanes norvegica was the most 

 important, contributing 46.6% of the diet on Georges 

 Bank and 46.2% in Western Nova Scotia. Other euphau- 

 siids, such as Thysanoessa longicaudata, were preyed 

 upon in both areas (3.6% on Georges Bank and <0.1% in 

 Western Nova Scotia), but Euphausia krohnii (0.1%) 

 was only found in stomachs collected from Georges Bank. 

 Apart from euphausiids, pandalid shrimp, primarily 

 Pandalus sp. (2.7% on Georges Bank and 2.9% in 

 Western Nova Scotia), and "Other Decapoda" such as 

 Pasiphaea (4.0% in Western Nova Scotia) were the only 

 other important Crustacea. Fish accounted for the 

 remaining bulk of the diet and a number of different 

 species were identified in the stomach contents as fol- 

 lows: Georges Bank — lanternfish (8.8%); the pearlside, 

 Maurolicus pennanti (1.2%); silver hake (0.4%); and pol- 

 lock (0.1%). Western Nova Scotia^the snake eel (5.5%); 

 redfish (1.3%); haddock (0.7%); silver hake (0.6%); blue- 

 back herring, Alosa aestivalis (0.5%); and the sand lance, 

 Ammodytes (0.4%). 



In the Gulf of Maine the emphasis shifted from Crus- 

 tacea (33.8%) to Pisces (64.9%) as the major prey cate- 

 gory. This difference was almost entirely caused by 

 heavy predation on the Atlantic herring (29.4%). Few 

 other fish, except for redfish (2.3%) and silver hake 

 (1.9%), could be identified from the partially digested re- 

 mains. Crustaceans remained an important prey group 

 but the groups composing the category differed from 

 those of Georges Bank and Western Nova Scotia. "Other 

 Decapoda" were the most important, with Pasiphaea be- 

 ing the largest single prey item (5.5%). Euphausiids also 

 contributed to the diet and. again, Meganyctiphanes 

 (6.7%) was the most important, although Thysanoessa 

 inermis (O.Kr) was also present in the stomach con- 

 tents. Finally, three species of pandalid shrimp were 

 identified: Dichelopandalus leptocerus (0.9%), Pan- 

 dalus borealis (0.6%), and P. montagui (<0.1%). 



Silver hake, Merluccius bilinearis. — Silver hake are 

 widespread with the result that stomachs were collected 

 in reasonably large numbers from all geographic areas 

 (Table 4). In all five areas fish was the major prey but the 



