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Seasonal Variations in the Fat Content of the Flounder, Pleuronectes flesus L

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Douglas P. Wilson
Douglas P. Wilson
Affiliation:
Naturalist at the Plymouth Laboratory
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Extract

In the flounder adipose tissue forms a padding between the muscles to the dorsal and ventral fins. A little is present under the skin, more especially where the lateral line septa and the myocommata meet the skin. In addition a quantity of fat is associated with the skeleton.

Immature flounders living in the estuaries of the Tamar and Lynher are fattest after intense feeding during the summer, and leanest after the winter fast.

Maturing flounders have a high fat content before going to sea to spawn. While in the sea during the spawning season, February to April, very little feeding takes place and there is a rapid drop in fat content. Spent fish are very lean.

Those females which return to the estuaries after spawning rapidly make good their fat loss.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , May 1939 , pp. 361 - 379
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1939

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