FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 85, NO. 4 



Table 6.— (A) Prevalence of Kudoa species, (B) fork length compo- 

 sition (%), and (C) sex ratio of Pacific whiting samples in the INPFC 

 catch survey area. 



Effect of Biological Factors 

 on Sensory Texture 



Biological data showing sex composition, the 

 ratio of females to males, and representative fork 

 lengths (FL) and their relationship to correspond- 

 ing sensory textures and survey areas are given 

 in Tables 3B, 3C, 6B, and 6C, respectively. The 

 ratio of females to males nearly doubled as fish- 

 ing activities in this study moved from south to 

 north along the Pacific coast. Concurrently, the 



fork length of the fish increased as well. About 

 60% of the largest fish (60 to 80 cm FL) were 

 caught between the Columbia River and Vancou- 

 ver Island. More abnormal textures were oberved 

 in the larger fish than in the smaller fish (Table 

 3B). Based on the total number of specimens ex- 

 amined, however, the correlation coefficient for 

 the relationship between fork length and sensory 

 texture was low (r = -0.21 at P = 0.001). 



Sensory texture was not found to be related to 

 the sex of the fish (r = 0.04 at P = 0.181, Table 

 3C). The percentage of abnormal textures in the 

 female and male fish was about the same, i.e., 6 

 and 8%, respectively, confirming the reports of 

 Kabata and Whitaker (1981). Similarly, males 

 and females were evenly distributed (approxi- 

 mately 12%) in the soft-texture category. 



The Relationship of Pseudocyst 



Counts to Location of hifection 



in a Fillet Area to Texture 



Results of analyses to determine the relation- 

 ship of intensity of infection in a fillet area (Fig. 

 3) to texture quality are shown in Table 7. Pseu- 

 docyst infections were found throughout the fillet 

 areas. The highest percentage (11 to 12%) of 

 heavy infections of white pseudocysts were 

 located in the nape area, whereas the lowest inci- 

 dence (8%) was located in the tail (r = 0.89 at 



Table 7. — Percentage of degree of Kudoa pseudocyst infection and corresponding sensory 

 textures found in preselected examination areas of Pacific whiting fillets. 



'Pseudocyst counts. 



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