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Fish feed on faeces and vomits of New Zealand fur seals: marine mammals bring nutrients from open to inshore waters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 August 2010

João Paulo Krajewski  and
Ivan Sazima
João Paulo Krajewski*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biologia Animal, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 13083-970 Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
Ivan Sazima
Affiliation:
Museu de Zoologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 13083-970 Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil (retired and associated as voluntary researcher)
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: J.P. Krajewski, Departamento de Biologia Animal, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 13083-970 Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil email: jpaulokra@yahoo.com.br
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Abstract

New Zealand fur seals (Arctocephalus forsteri) forage mostly in open waters at night and spend parts of the day in coastal sheltered sites, where they may play, rest and eliminate wastes. We recorded the purple wrasse (Notolabrus fucicola) feeding on faeces and vomits of these pinnipeds at Fortescue Bay in the Tasman Peninsula, Australia. This behaviour allows the wrasse to get nutrients from open waters that otherwise would not be available. Thus, it is suggested that the fur seals have the role of transferring nutrients from open waters to inshore reefs and provide them as particulate food to fish. This functional role is apparently recorded for only one species of marine mammal so far, the spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris), in tropical oceanic waters.

Keywords

OtariidaewastesLabridaecoprophagynutrient transferAustralia
Type
Research Article
Information
Marine Biodiversity Records , Volume 3 , June 2010 , e81
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2010

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