Variations in Fillet Lipid Content and Some Percent Lipid-Iodine Value Relationships for Large Winter Atlantic Herring (Clupea harengus harengus) from Southeastern Newfoundland

Lipid was extracted from fillets of large Newfoundland winter Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus harengus) gillnetted in Placentia Bay. In the period January through March percent lipid fell more sharply in females than in males, but lipid-iodine values declined at approximately the same rates. Lipid-iodine values were noticeably higher (about 20 units, maximum values ca. 160) than for the oils produced from fish seined in adjacent waters and commercially reduced. It is proposed that these particular herring are an isolated stock peculiar to Placentia Bay, but that they show certain aspects of lipid biochemistry that are influenced by the reproductive cycle in common with other herring from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.