New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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Iso-electric focusing and the identification of fisheries' waste in the diet of Westland petrels (Procellaria westlandica)

AMANDA N. D. FREEMAN

Department of Entomology & Animal Ecology
P. O. Box 84
Lincoln University
Canterbury, New Zealand

PETER J. SMITH

National Institute of Water & Atmospheric
 Research Ltd
P. O. Box 14 901
Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract  Iso-electric focusing was used to identify fish tissue in Westland petrel (Procellaria westlandica) diet samples. Forty-five percent of the samples from Westland petrel stomachs produced clear protein banding patterns and more than half of these were identified as species common in fisheries' waste. Proteins in the other samples were presumably too digested for this technique. Iso-electric focusing is a comparatively quick and inexpensive technique and is particularly useful for diet studies where flesh eaten is likely to be relatively undigested at the time of sampling.

Keywords  iso-electric focusing; diet studies; petrel; fisheries discards and waste

M97062

Received 9 October 1997; accepted 19 December 1997



PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (743K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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