The Occurrence and Food Habits of Two Species of Hake, Urophycis regius and U. floridanus in Georgia Estuaries

From 1967 to 1970 a total of 2,683 spotted hake, Urophycis regius and 470 southern hake, U. floridanus were collected and found to exhibit migratory patterns in Georgia similar to northern and Gulf populations of these fish. The food habits of inshore juvenile populations of these two species of hake collected from coastal salt marsh-estuarine areas near Sapelo Island, Georgia were examined. The 341 spotted hake and 192 southern hake examined contained identifiable food items. These were analyzed for the numbers of individual food organisms, percent frequency of occurrence, and percent biomass. The most important group in occurrence and biomass was the Crustacea with Macrura and Natantia most important gravimetrically, Amphipoda and Mysidacea most frequently occurring. These data when combined with the habits of the food organisms established these two hakes as species which use the estuary as “nursery grounds.”