Distinction among North Atlantic cod Gadus morhua stocks by tissue fatty acid profiles.

The fatty acid (FA) profiles of the white muscle and heart tissues of cod Gadus morhua from five locations, Faroe Bank, Faroe Plateau, North-West Iceland, Norway-Barents Sea and Denmark-Skagerrak, were population dependent. The interregional differences of FAs were significantly dissimilar (P < 0.01) in most cases. By way of a rapid and simple analytical method, the stock dependence and harvest location of individual G. morhua were chemometrically determined by multivariate principal component analysis. The difference among the stocks was correlated with the average water temperature at the harvest locations. It thus appears that the tissue FA profile is a phenotypic trait that is partly temperature driven.
(© 2014 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles.)