Food habits of the Frilled Shark Chlamydoselachus anguineus Collected from Suruga Bay, Central Japan

Abstract

In this paper, a stomach content analysis of frilled shark Chlamydoselachus anguineus is presented based on 139 specimens caught incidentally by sergestid shrimp midwater trawling or bottom gill-net fishing conducted in Suruga Bay from 1984 to 1988.
The food items of this shark were mostly decapodan cephalopods and fishes, which were found at the frequencies of 60.5% and 10.5%, respectively among the stomachs containing food. Food items found in the stomach, except for two cases of common squid Todarodes pacificus were digested to such an extent that it was not possible to identify the original shape. Therefore, species identification of decapodan cephalopods was performed by their beaks. These included bathypelagic species as well as epipelagic species. The empty stomach rate of specimens examined was 73.4% showing an extremely high level as compared with other deep-water sharks.