Abstract

Large pelagic fish such as swordfish, dorado, barracuda and tuna, among others, are species with a high migration ca-pacity. The distribution and abundance of these organisms are mediated by factors like the availability of food and oceano-graphic conditions. The knowledge of their biology is fundamental due to the influence that they can have on other compo-nents of pelagic ecosystems since they are predators on the top of trophic networks. In order to evaluate the trophic composition of large pelagic fish in waters off the coast of the Department of Magdalena, stomach content analysis was per-formed. Fish were caught from March to August 2018, using rods and reel with live bait and artificial lures; these tech-niques are usually implemented in sport fishing. The stomachs of 29 specimens with a total length range from 320 to 1110 mm were analyzed; nine (31.03%) of the stomachs were empty. 105 items belonging to seven taxonomic categories were identified; additionally, the presence of plastic waste was recorded. Our results classify this group of fish as generalist pred-ators, with low diversity of prey. According to the relative importance index (% IIR) the fish Mugil sp. (39.68%) and rests of other teleostei (32.02%) were their main prey, while Megalopa larvae (13.73) were secondary preys. This result is simi-lar to other studies where the large pelagic fish are classified as piscivores. However, the generalist habits of these fish con-trasts with the specialist habits reported by other authors. This work represents a contribution to the trophic ecology, and the first evidence of plastic waste in the stomach content of these fish for the Caribbean coast of Colombian.

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