Pj. Smith et Pg. Benson, Biochemical identification of shark fins and fillets from the coastal fisheries in New Zealand, FISH B, 99(2), 2001, pp. 351-355
The protein fingerprints of shark fillets and fins taken from commercial la
ndings in northern New Zealand waters were compared with the protein finger
prints from control samples of ten species of coastal sharks. Isoelectric f
ocusing (IEF) in agarose gels revealed species-specific protein profiles in
the ten control species. The fillets and fins were identified as school sh
ark (Galeorhinus galeus), rig (Mustelus lenticulatus), hammer-head shark (S
phyrna zygaena), and bronze whaler (Carcharhinus brachyurus). Around 40% of
fillets from cartons labelled as lemon fish (M, lenticulatus) were from ot
her species. Shark fins were identified from four species, two of which are
prohibited target species in northern New Zealand. The large number of mis
labelled shark products necessitates the use of a simple biochemical techni
que for identification of shark species in commercial shark products. With
IEF, around 100 specimens can be identified by a laboratory technician each
working day from small amounts (<0.5 g) of white muscle.