The diet and consumption of mackerel in the North Sea

The contents of 3674 mackerel stomachs sampled during 1981 and 1982 are analysed and presented.The samples were taken by five countries at 270 different stations as a part of The International Stomach Sampling Programme in the North Sea.The gears used were trawl, hook and line, gill net and purse seine.The most important prey items in percent wet weight were copepods, euphaus iids and fish.•the fish prey i terns were sandeel, Norway pout, herring, sprat, pearl side, cod, haddock, horse mackerel, pipe fish, dragonet, weever and dab.An attempt was made to calculate the North Sea mackerel stock's annual food consumption.Each recognizable prey species, genus or family were split into size categories.Numbers and total wet weight, measured to the nearest milligram, were recorded for each of these size categories.The results were then filed in the computer.The number of stomachs collected in each quarter in 1981 and 1982 is given in the text table below.