Spawning sockeye salmon from the Wauk Wash River, B.C., contained 65% less carotenoid than prespawning fish taken at sea near Juneau, Alaska. Free astaxanthin in the muscle of spawning fish was only 1% of the amount noted for prespawning fish. Ninety-five percent of the pigment retained by the spawning males was located in the skin as esters and 85% of the pigment of spawning females was deposited in the eggs as free astaxanthin.

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No colored carotenoids were recovered from the scales or liver of the coelacanth, Latimeria chalumnae, or from skin, immature eggs, or liver of the Pacific hagfish, Eptatretus stoutii. Zeaxanthin, present as esters in the skin and largely unesterified in the liver, was the only carotenoid identified in the thornback ray, Platyrhinoidis triseriata, and in the horned shark, Heterodontus francisci, whereas the skin of the Pacific mako shark, Isurus glaucus, yielded no carotenoids.

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