Distinguishing between Different Populations of Harp Seal ( Phoca groenlandica ) by Chemometry of the Fatty Acid Profiles in the Jaw Bone

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• Main Authors: Grahl-Nielsen, Otto, Mjaavatten, Olav, Tvedt, Einar
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1993
• Subjects: Aquatic Science; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Barents Sea; Greenland; Greenland Sea; Harp Seal; Phoca groenlandica
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/f93-160; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/f93-160

The relative amounts of various fatty acids of jawbone and eye lens were determined in harp seals (Phoca groenlandica) caught in the Greenland Sea and in the Barents Sea. The two tissues had distinctly different profiles. The fatty acid profile in the lens tissue changed with age. Principal component analysis of the data showed that the profiles in the jawbone were different in seals from the two populations, while the difference was much less prominent in the case of the eye lens. Using the jawbone profiles from the western and eastern seals as reference, it was shown that seven seals, caught in west coast seine nets during the large invasion of harp seals along the Norwegian coast in the winter of 1986–87, had come from the eastern population.