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

 50 



40 



3 |(a8.0) BERING SEA 

 (NAUMENKO) 

 4 



30 



G 



LU 



H 

 < 



a: 



LU 

 O 

 CO 



> 



1 20 



< 



10 



SAN FRANC 



J L_L 



TOMALES BAY 



100 



150 

 BL (MM) 



AT 



200 

 ANNULUS 



250 



Figure 9.— Hypothetical growth in (fresh) eviscerated body weight by Pacific herring at locales in 

 the eastern Pacific Ocean and eastern Bering Sea. Data were based on relationships between eviscerated 

 body weight and BL in samples from the Auke Bay vicinity and data on growth reported in the literature 

 (see Table 1). Numbered points are ages at the beginning of annual growth increments. The dashed 

 vertical line is for comparative purposes and intersects the graphs at 190 mm BL. The second annulus 

 was taken as the first year mark in specimens from Auke Bay, Katlian Bay, and Bering Sea (this study). 



maturity. Size of adults is influenced more by 

 growth rate of juveniles and the size at inflection 

 of growth stanzas than by the constant of propor- 

 tional growth after inflection. 



In the Auke Bay vicinity, a sharp increase of zoo- 

 plankton abundance in June is the determinent for 

 the annual cycles of fattening and spawning in 

 Pacific herring, and spawning in April or May seems 

 optimally timed for growth of newly hatched fry. 



In summer, fat builds rapidly about the viscera and 

 in the musculature of adults, as a reserve for gonad 

 development and metabolism in fall and winter when 

 food is scarce and herring do not feed. lies (1984) 

 found that in Atlantic herring fat is assimilated and 

 deposited almost unchanged during the feeding 

 cycle and is not utilized for metabolism until the 

 metabolic pool of protein is exhausted. He also 

 hypothesizes that annual somatic growth declines 



719 



