Abstract
A method for determination of the fatty acids of blubber fat from living seals is demonstrated: fat samples are retrieved by a small syringe, the fat is directly methanolysed, the resulting fatty acid methyl esters are gas-chromatographed and the chromatographic results are treated by multivariate principal-component analysis. The blubber fat of two grey seals [Halichoerus grypus (Fabricius, 1791)] and two harbor seals (Phoca vitulina L.) at the Aquarium of Bergen, Norway, as well as their diet, herring and mackerel, were monitored over a period of 7 mo in 1989. Fatty acid composition of the blubber fat was significantly different from that of the diet.
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Communicated by T. Fenchel, Helsingør
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Grahl-Nielsen, O., Mjaavatten, O. Dietary influence on fatty acid composition of blubber fat of seals as determined by biopsy: A multivariate approach. Mar. Biol. 110, 59–64 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01313092
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01313092