. Tissue preparation
Ten sea urchins, randomly chosen from each dietary treatment group/location and 10
replicates of each dietary source were analysed. The sea urchins were dissected and the
gonads removed. The gonads were weighed and between 0.12 and 1.18 g of gonadal
material were used for the extraction procedure depending on the quantity of gonad
contained within the sea urchin. The mussels were also dissected and the internal organs
and viscera were finely chopped, the excess water drained and between 0.99 and 1.43 g
of tissue (wet weight) was used. The L. saccharina was cleaned thoroughly in filtered
seawater, chopped coarsely and between 4.37 and 6.76 g of tissue (wet weight) was used
for lipid extraction. Both central and peripheral regions of the frond were used in the
analysis. The salmon feed pellets were coarsely ground using a pestle and mortar and
between 0.18 and 0.24 g of pellet was used for lipid extraction.