Feeding Ecology of Adult Red Drum Sciaenops Ocellatus From Coastal Waters of North Carolina and South Carolina: Responses to Spatiotemporal Differences in Prey Assemblages

Fisheries management plans have traditionally discounted the importance of predation mortality compared to fishing mortality, leading to reliance on incomplete information when policies are made.   Holistic and multi-species management plans require characterization of trophic relationships for a full understanding of the system. We examined the trophic relationships of large adult red drum (>750mm TL), Sciaenops ocellatus, in the coastal waters of South Carolina (n=48) and North Carolina (n= 97) from 2007-2011.  Fish with empty stomachs were removed from analysis.  Stomachs samples were collected by NC Division of Marine Fisheries and SC Department of Natural Resources via annual fall longline surveys.    The NC fish were more reliant on blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) and shrimp (Penaeus spp.) as prey, while SC fish waters fed heavily on Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus) and a diverse group of marine crab species.  Prey species contribution did vary between years, although the major prey contributors were consistent.  Overall, the diet of NC red drum was much less diverse, especially with respect to marine invertebrates, as their SC counterparts, likely because of prey assemblage differences between the predominantly estuarine habitat in NC and the coastal marine habitat in SC.