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New information on weakfish

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Promoting the consumption of edible aquatic invasive species has gained popularity to minimize its impacts while easing pressure on native resources. Weakfish Cynoscion regalis (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) is one of the most recent invasive fish species in the Iberian Peninsula (Europe) which once sustained an important fishery in the native range (Northwest Atlantic Ocean). Portugal ranks third in the list of the world's top fish consumers, so promoting a weakfish fishery could at least help minimize the impacts upon native species, since weakfish have innate traits that are likely appreciated by Portuguese fish consumers. However, introducing a new species to consumers is challenging owing to consumers' habits and unfamiliarity with the species. So, we aimed to (i) evaluate the acceptance of weakfish by a panel of Portuguese fish consumers and (ii) create outreach actionspartnerships with local Chefs and press releasesto explain to a broader public what invasive species are and promote the consumption of edible aquatic invasive species. The survey that we conducted to Portuguese fish consumers showed that weakfish has great chances of being well accepted by the public -90% of consumers would buy weakfish because they appreciated its appearance, flavour, and texture, besides being a wild fish. The outreach actions reached a few million people because 46 online articles were published, and three news pieces broadcasted on national television. Overall, our strategy greatly increased the public's awareness about invasive species, which can be replicated elsewhere in the world.

The occurrence of scyphozoan blooms is frequently reported in coastal areas, suggesting a need to assess its impacts on trophic webs. However, many scyphozoan species remain understudied with regard to their feeding ecology. Here, feeding selectivity experiments were conducted to learn about the possible prey preference of Catostylus tagi among mesozooplankton prey and estimate feeding rates. In general, C. tagi demonstrated a relative positive selection on small prey as cyclopoid copepods (Oithona spp. and Oncaea spp.), copepod nauplii as well as non-swimming prey (fish eggs), and ingestion rates increased with prey concentration. Further in situ studies must be conducted during summer blooms, to determine the predatory impact, retrieving data of C. tagi and prey abundance, particularly in important nursery areas such as estuaries.