Sunday, April 5, 2009

Caspian Tern and salmon going belly up


Caspian Tern Point Wilson, originally uploaded by rlw5663.

In this photo a Caspian Tern with a salmonid it is harder to identify the field marks that make this fish a salmon. Look for the dark color to the rounded tail tips. The tail is only forked a little and as is typical of salmonid smolt of this size not inclined to collapse down. The white belly with no transluscence, long fusiform body and full head also help ID this as a salmon. This fish is between 21 - 24 cm using an estimated exposed culmen of 7 cm on the tern. Another characteristic of this fish that fits a salmonid ID is the point where the head is flexing up. Salmonids are relatively flexible for a fusiform fish of this size (i.e. a herring of comparable size would be stiffer and straight).

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