Differentiation and Identification of Cultured and Wild Crappie (Pomoxis spp.) Based on Fatty Acid Composition

Although harvesting of wild fish, for commercial purposes, is becoming more restricted, forensic methods to distinguish between wild and cultured fish are lacking. Crappie is an important sport and food fish, and is gaining in importance as a cultured fish species. Harvesting of wild crappie for commercial purposes is banned in many states. Therefore crappie was selected to evaluate the usefulness of fatty acid composition as a forensic method to determine the origin of the fish. The fatty acid composition differed between cultured and wild crappie. Wild crappie contained significantly higher amounts of C16:0, C16:1 and C22:6n-3+C24:1 and lower amounts of C18:2 and C20:4 than did cultured crappie. Seasonal differences in fatty acid composition were observed for wild crappie but not for cultured crappie. Wild crappie also had higher fatty acid concentrations in the fall than cultured crappie. The combination of the 10 fatty acids, C14:1, C16:0, C16:1, C18:1, C18:2, C20:1, C20:4, C20:5n-3, C22:4 and C22:6n-3+C24:1 was found most useful for discrimination between wild and cultured crappie with a classification accuracy of 94% for cultured crappie and 96% for wild crappie. Fatty acid composition could also be used to distinguish samples by harvest season with approximately the same accuracy as for fish origin.