QUAST: BODY WEIGHT, FAT, AND GONADS OF PACIFIC HERRING 



fish will have spawned partially and that fecundity 

 estimates will be too low. 



When the relationships between BL, weight, and 

 fecundity in Pacific herring from Auke Bay were 

 used in a model of annual changes in gonad weight 

 and eviscerated weight, production of eviscerated 



weight decreased rapidly with age or size (Table 5, 

 col. 3). Gonad production (Table 5, col. 4), in con- 

 trast, increased yearly but appeared to approach an 

 asymptote at about 31-34 g in the oldest fish. With 

 age, more of the annual product (annual increment 

 in eviscerated weight plus gonad weight) was par- 



3.525 



2.775 



2.025 



1.275 



h- 



x 



2 0.525 



LU 



a 



< 4.125 



z 

 o 

 u 



3.375 



LN CONW =~ 20.44468+ 4.41971 (LN BL) 



MALES 



N = 63 



i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — i — r 



2.625 



1.875 



1 .125 



LN CONW =- 17.78385 + 3.93569 (LN BL) 



FEMALES 



N = 61 



' I ' ' ' I 



1 ' I 



J L 



_L 



I 



J L 



4.875 5.025 5.175 



LN BL (MM) 



5.325 



5.475 



Figure 8.— Relationships between (wet) gonad weight (GONW) and BL in fresh Pacific her- 

 ring collected from March to May 1973 near Auke Bay, AK (variates transformed by natural 

 logarithms (LN). Data (not shown) that formed a separate cluster of points near the abscissa 

 for each sex probably represented spawned fish and were not used in the regressions. Points 

 represent 1-2 specimens. 



717 



