Biochemical Implications of Seasonal Trends in the Iodine Values and Free Fatty Acid Levels of Commercially Produced Atlantic Coast Herring Oils

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Abstract
Annual surveys of commercial herring oils produced in summer and fall off southwestern Nova Scotia and in winter and spring off southwestern Newfoundland showed iodine values (IV) mostly within the range 135 to 105 in both locations for the years 1965–70. Two systematic trends in IV with season were detected. The first extended uniformly over the whole of each fishery season and was limited to no more than ± 5 IV units. It is believed to represent the influence of long-term average environmental conditions that may vary from year to year and that establish the basic fatty acid compositions of the fish entering the fishery. The second was observed as a seasonal decline, over 2–3 months, of 20 IV units in the Nova Scotia fishery, and of 10 IV units in the Newfoundland fishery. It is proposed that this short-term effect follows from an increase in the relative proportion of the low-density, long-chain, monoethylenic fatty acids characteristic of clupeid oils that could decrease residual fat density at a time of general fat depletion and corresponding density increase for the fish as a whole.Free fatty acids (FFA) in freshly produced oils were also examined. In both fisheries % FFA seldom exceeded 1 and under optimum conditions the % FFA were consistently about 0.2–0.3. Annual seasonal % FFA effects were apparently restricted to an increase in April in the Newfoundland fishery associated with high IV oils of a pink colour denoting heavy spring feeding.

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