Fish prey of southern elephant seals, Mirounga leonina, at King George Island

Between November and February in the years 1993/1994 to 1999/2000, 153 southern elephant seals, Mirounga leonina, were stomach lavaged at King George Island. Fish occurred in 16 of 108 stomachs containing food items. Myctophids were the dominant fish prey, contributing 76.6% of the 145 sagittal otoliths found. The most important prey species was Gymnoscopelus nicholsi, which constituted 69% of the otoliths and occurred in 75% of stomach samples. Next in importance was the nototheniid Pleuragramma antarcticum, which occurred in 31.3% of samples and represented 11.7% in numbers. We suggest that while myctophids may be the dominant fish prey of elephant seals in areas close to King George Island, they are probably replaced by P. antarcticum as seals migrate towards higher latitudes where this fish is extremely abundant.