Feeding habits of the Atlantic bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus (L. 1758), in the central Mediterranean Sea (Strait of Messina)

Overall, 123 stomachs of T. thynnus were collected during spring seasons of 2010 and 2011 in the Strait of Messina (central Mediterranean Sea) (Fig. 1). Samples were obtained from hand line fishery, carried out during daylight by small crafts in the study area already described by several Authors (Berdar et al. 1995; Potoschi and Sturiale 1996; Di Natale et al. 2005). At landings, the fork length (FL in cm), the gilled and gutted weight (GWT) of each individual and the hour of the catch were recorded, while the stomach was removed and frozen at −18 °C. Fishermen were asked about the bait used during fishing operation, in order to recognize this one from real prey and exclude it from analysis.

Stomachs were dissected in laboratory, and their content was observed using stereomicroscope. Qualitative analysis allowed us to identify entire or partially digested prey to the lowest possible taxa, following taxonomic features reported by Whitehead et al. (Whitehead et al. 1984–1986) for fishes, Roper et al. (1984), Jereb and Roper (2005, 2010), Young et al. (2010) for cephalopods, Falciai and Minervini (1992), Riedl (1991) for crustaceans and invertebrates. When prey were found in an advanced status of digestion, the identification of otoliths and cephalopod lower beaks was a powerful mean in their classification, which was performed using taxonomic keys (Clarke 1986; Tuset et al. 2008), as well as a reference to ISPRA collections (Pedà et al. 2009; Battaglia et al. 2010).

The identified preys were counted and weighed; entire specimens were preserved in 70 % ethanol, while beaks were immersed in a mixture of ethanol, glycerine and water.

Quantitative analysis was performed only on fresh prey found in the stomach content, while accumulated prey items were excluded. In fact, hard parts are resistant to digestion (i.e. cephalopod beaks and otoliths) and may cumulate in the stomachs over more meals, leading to an overestimation of the importance of prey they belong to. Then, as hypothesized by Santos et al. (2001), only prey bearing fleshy remains were supposed to have been recently eaten by the predator.

The importance of the different prey items to the diet of T. thynnus was assessed by calculating the following dietary indexes: abundance percentage (%N = number of individuals of prey i/total number of prey × 100) and weight percentage (%W = weight of prey i/total weight of all prey × 100), frequency of occurrence (%F = number of stomachs containing prey i/total number of stomachs containing prey × 100). These values were combined to calculate the IRI for each prey and the %IRI was also estimated (Pinkas et al. 1971; Hyslop 1980; Hacunda 1981): IRI = (%N + %W)(%F) and %IRI _i  = (IRI _i /∑IRI) × 100.

In order to assess the hypothetical daily foraging rhythm of the Atlantic bluefin tuna, preyed items (and, specifically, the predominant species detected in the stomach content) were separated into four subgroups according to the digestion stage: (1) Entire prey; (2) Intermediate 1 (low degree of digestion); (3) Intermediate 2 (high degree of digestion, but fleshy remains are present); (4) Accumulated prey (hard remains, that is, cephalopod beaks, fish otoliths). Following Pusineri et al. (2005), the digestion stage was then compared with the hour of catch and was estimated the hour of feeding, taking into account that tunas are able to totally digest a fish of medium size in about 24 h (transit time assessed from the examination of stomach contents), as stated by Aloncle and Delaporte (1973). Moreover, as cephalopod beaks are resistant to digestion (Santos et al. 2001), beaks without fresh remains were considered belonging to cephalopods caught prior to the day of sampling, whereas beaks still in the buccal mass were related to specimens eaten during early evening, in a time less than 24 h of tuna catch (Pusineri et al. 2005).

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