130 
Phylum, class 
or other taxa 
Urochordata 
Pisces 
Scientific name 
Urochordata 
Actinopterygii 
Anguilliformes 
Ariosoma balearicum* 
Conger oceanicus* 
Ophichthidae 
Echiophis intertinctus* 
Ophichthus puncticeps* 
Saurida brasiliensis* 
Synodus foetens* 
Synodus poeyi* 
Bregmaceros cantori* 
Ophidion sp.* 
Porichthys plectrodon* 
Carangidae 
Decapterus punctatus 
Citharichthys macrops* 
Syacium papillosum* 
Halichoeres caudalis* 
Haemulidae 
Haemulon aurolineatum* 
Rhomboplites aurorubens 
Pagrus pagrus* 
Stenotomus sp. 
Sphoeroides dorsalis* 
Serraniculus pumilio* 
Prionotus roseus* 
Table 1 (continued) 
Common name 
Unid. tunicate 
Unid. ray-finned fish 
Unid. eel 
Bandtooth conger 
Conger eel 
Unid. snake eel 
Spotted spoon-nose eel 
Palespotted eel 
Largescale lizardfish 
Inshore lizardfish 
Offshore lizardfish 
Striped codlet 
Unid. cusk-eel 
Atlantic midshipman 
Unid. jack 
Round scad 
Spotted whiff 
Dusky flounder 
Painted wrasse 
Unid. grunt 
Tomtate 
Vermilion snapper 
Red porgy 
Unid. porgy 
Marbled puffer 
Pygmy sea bass 
Bluespotted searobin 
Fishery Bulletin 119(2-3) 
TOW IRI (%) 
may have been inadequate to completely characterize the 
diet of red snapper. However, because red snapper had a 
broad range of sizes, because the samples were collected 
from a large area in a range of depths, and because the 
species richness of the prey found in stomachs of the sam- 
pled red snapper was close to the predicted prey species 
richness, we are confident that the most important prey 
were accurately characterized. Further, the species accu- 
mulation curves used in investigations of the diets of 
marine fish species unlikely approach asymptote when 
a species-level taxonomic resolution is used for gener- 
alist predators (Preti et al., 2012). Therefore, only rare 
prey, which are likely opportunistically or inadvertently 
consumed and not considered significant diet components 
(Byron and Link, 2010), may be absent from this diet 
description. Red snapper persistently fed on few prey taxa, 
such as fish, portunid crab, and sicyoniid rock shrimp spe- 
cies, while sporadically feeding on a variety of other prey 
found over both reef and open sand habitats in our study, a 
result that is consistent with findings from a study in the 
Gulf of Mexico (Szedlmayer and Lee, 2004). The generalist 
use of resources by red snapper and our increased ability 
to identify prey items to the species level by using DNA 
barcoding likely explain the unsaturated species accumu- 
lation curve in our study. 
We did not find evidence of significant predation by 
red snapper on other fish species managed as part of the 
snapper-grouper complex along the Atlantic coast of the 
southeastern United States, indicating that the rebuild- 
ing stock of red snapper in this region is not affecting 
other managed species through direct top-down control. 
However, competitive interactions have been identified 
as a major source of density-dependent mortality in 
marine systems (Hixon and Jones, 2005), and results 
from a seminal study (Pope, 1979) indicate that compet- 
itive interactions can have greater influence than direct 
predation on maximum sustainable yield in marine sys- 
tems. Furthermore, competitive interactions may inhibit 
recovery of depleted stocks of marine fish species by lim- 
iting energy-rich prey necessary for reproductive suc- 
cess, even after fishing pressure is drastically reduced 
(Lambert and Dutil, 2000). Because of their broad diet, 
red snapper could be competing with other species. 
Therefore, additional studies on predator—prey interactions 
