228 



Fishery Bulletin 93(2), 1995 



To summarize, this study has demonstrated that 

 1) morphological criteria were either not good indi- 

 cators of nutritional condition (eye:head ratio), good 

 only for larvae (pectoral angle), or require extensive 

 calibration (standard and dry weight); 2) biochemi- 

 cal criteria are either not good indicators (protein 

 content) or are sensitive only in juveniles (RNA:DNA 

 ratio); and 3) the histological criterion of posterior 

 intestinal mucosa cell height is the most sensitive 

 and consistent indicator of starvation in young sum- 

 mer flounder over the stages examined. Although the 

 current study needs to be applied to field-collected 

 larvae, the laboratory data indicate that the addi- 

 tional time and expense of histological sample prepa- 

 ration and analysis is justified in the face of uncer- 

 tainties associated with the other methods examined. 

 On the other hand, application of either morphologi- 

 cal or histological criteria is appropriate for an aquac- 

 ulture setting in which age of the larvae is known. 



Acknowledgments 



This research was supported by the United States 

 Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and 

 Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fish- 

 eries Service, Saltonstall-Kennedy grant number 

 NA-90-AA-H-SK033. The authors thank Doranne 

 Borsay, Sue Cheer, Ken Thomas, and Paul Yevich for 

 their assistance in this study. Robert Bullock and 

 Austin Williams kindly granted access to their fa- 

 cilities and equipment. Larry Buckley, Ted Durbin, 

 Grace Klein-MacPhee, and Perry Jeffries provided 

 helpful comments and advice during the experimen- 

 tal phase and preparation of this manuscript. 



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