A Comparison of Lipids and Fatty Acids of the Ocean Quahaug, Arctica islandica, from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick

Abstract

Lots of ocean quahaugs, Arctica islandica, respectively from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, were compared to see if fatty acid compositions might reflect local food sources and thus explain alleged flavor problems. Lipid contents increased from May to July, but detailed fatty acid comparisons including those from flesh and hepatopancreas, gave similar results except with minor details indicative of active feeding. A holding experiment with New Brunswick quahaugs gave essentially the basic lipid composition but after 10 wk compositional variations in fatty acid were suggestive of the effect of nonfeeding. The close fatty acid resemblence among several samples suggests that the ocean quahaug eventually converts ingested fatty acids to a species-specific composition based on those acids common to other northwestern Atlantic shellfish. Certain details of these fatty acid analyses suggest particulate matter sources for some ingested fatty acids. No correlation between flavor and lipid or fatty acid composition could be obtained because flavor problems were not observed in these samples.