SIMS

Image of Cuttlefish
Photo: Rob Harcourt
© Rob Harcourt

Macquarie University Honours student Candace McBride is investigating the habitat use and diet of this small Australian cuttlefish species, which grows to a maximum length of just 15 centimetres.

The Mourning cuttlefish has been observed inhabiting shallow seagrass beds from Jervis Bay, in southern New South Wales to the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia. Currently, little work has been done on the foraging behaviour of any Australian species of cuttlefish, with most international attention focusing on the European cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis.

Initially, McBride will generate habitat maps of two cuttlefish sites in Sydney Harbour - Camp Cove and Little Manly Cove. She hopes to determine the habitat commonly used by S. plangon; whether habitat use is influenced by other factors such as depth; and the size of individuals and whether there is any diet or temporal variation in habitat use. The data from both sites will also be used to assess whether habitat use varies between sites. Cuttlefish will be tagged and recorded at both locations to detect any site fidelity and to assess movement of these small animals. Following on from this, McBride will be looking at the diet of this species, through stomach content analysis to determine if diet varies with the size of the animals, depth or time of day.