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Entry 34Filed under Breeding

Which Organisms Feed on Fish?

Larger fish, birds, reptiles, marine mammals and people eat fish. Sea lampreys also feed on fish parasitically, and predators vary with habitat and life stage.
2-minute read By Animalso Team
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Fish are eaten by larger fish, fish-eating birds, reptiles, marine mammals and people. Some fish, such as sea lampreys in their parasitic stage, feed on other fish without swallowing them whole. The predators a fish faces depend on its habitat, size, species and life stage.

Common groups that eat fish

Other fish

Many fish prey on smaller fish. In NOAA’s Gulf of Maine food-web example, herring are eaten by larger fish such as dogfish, cod and tuna; the same overview describes dogfish, cod and mackerel as consumers of smaller fish. A fish that feeds on fish is called a piscivore, though the term does not mean that fish is its only food.

NOAA’s overview of aquatic food webs shows how these relationships connect to other feeding links rather than forming a simple chain.

Birds

Fish-eating birds include the belted kingfisher, great blue heron and osprey, examples named in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s food-chain resource. They are representative examples, not a complete list of birds that catch fish.

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The EPA resource on food chains uses “piscivore” for organisms that feed on fish and includes fish-eating birds among its examples.

Reptiles and marine mammals

Some reptiles, including alligators, prey on fish. In marine habitats, seals and other marine mammals eat fish, and orcas also feed on fish. Washington State’s salmon overview describes salmon as prey for larger fish, birds, seals and other marine mammals, and orcas.

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Washington State’s account of predation in the salmon food web concerns salmon in Washington and Oregon; its examples should not be treated as a predator list for every fish species.

Humans

People also eat fish. In ecosystems, humans are one consumer among many; which wild predators are relevant depends on the fish and the place it lives.

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A distinctive case: sea lampreys

Not every fish-feeding animal catches and swallows a fish whole. During its parasitic stage, the sea lamprey feeds on other fish. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service describes this feeding relationship in its sea lamprey profile.

Why the answer varies by fish

There is no universal list of predators that applies to every fish. A fish’s exposure to predators changes with its habitat, species, size and life stage. An aquatic food web maps multiple connected feeding relationships and the movement of energy; its arrows generally point from prey toward the consumer, not in the direction a predator pursues its prey.

Salmon illustrate how much a fish’s role can vary over its life. Washington State reports that salmon feed 138 other Washington and Oregon animals and plants across their lives. That is a salmon-specific, geographically limited figure—not a count of predators for fish worldwide.

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