Very long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in the blubber of ringed seals ( Phoca hispidasp.) from Lake Saimaa, Lake Ladoga, the Baltic Sea, and Spitsbergen

• Published in: Lipids
• Main Authors: Käkelä, Reijo, Ackman, Robert G., Hyvärinen, Heikki
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1995
• Subjects: ringed seal; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf02537799; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1007/BF02537799

Abstract Blubbers of four ringed seal subspecies from Lake Saimaa, Lake Ladoga, the Baltic Sea, and Spitsbergen were analyzed for very long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (VLCPUFA; >C 22 ) using gas‐liquid chromatography and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The VLCPUFA of the blubber oils were mainly n−3 polyunsaturated fatty acids—23∶5n−3, 24∶3n−3, 24∶4n−3, 24∶5n−3, 24∶6n−3, 26∶5n−3, 26∶6n−3, and 28∶7n−3. The largest VLCPUFA components in all populations were 24∶5n−3 (0.1–0.2 wt% of total fatty acids) and 24∶6n−3 (0.1%), but 24∶4n−3 (0.1%) was also prominent in the Baltic specimens. The blubber oils of the freshwater species contained considerably more 24∶4n−6 and 24∶5n−6 than the blubbers of the marine species. The differences among the VLCPUFA in these subspecies appear to be mainly due to different dietary VLCPUFA.