Abstract

Red Snapper, Lutjanus campechanus, is a higbly exploited reeffish in the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) that occupies both natural hard-bottom and artificial habitats. Despite its importance, little is known about its feeding habits. Toward this end, we examined the size-specific diet of red snapper collected for stomach content anaIysis from artificial reefs in the north-central Gulf off Alabama between May 1999 - April 2000. Thirty-nine to 86 stomachs per month were removed and prey items were identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level. The relative contribution of prey items was determined usingpercentcomposition by weight, percent composition by number, percent frequency of occurrence, and index of relative importance (IRI). Results suggest that snapper are feeding on organisms not associated with reefs, such as mantis shrimp and portunid crabs. Diet changes seasonally, with crabs being most important (38% and 43% by IRI) in summer and fall, while mantis shrimp dominate in winter (42% IRI). Pelagic zooplankton was the greatest by percent weight in the diet in spring (60% IRI). Fish also contribute to each season, but they are not the principal prey items in any season (28% - 30% IRI). These diet data ultimately will be used in combination with a bioenergetics model to estimate prey demand of snapper on Alabama artificial reefs.

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