Identification of Canned Salmon Species by Scale Characteristics

Abstract

An additional collaborative study on the identification of canned salmon species, based on the method and key published earlier, was conducted in 1971. All of the 8 collaborators were able to find usable and intact scales for mounting and identification. The overall percent correct identifications for 48 samples for the 8 collaborators was 79%. Three collaborators correctly identified all 6 samples and 3 more had only 1 of 6 samples incorrectly identified. Since the pink species was correctly identified in all cases and the chum species was correctly identified in 9 of 11 samples, the method has been adopted as official first action for the identification of these 2 species. Additional work will be done to eliminate the problems encountered with the sockeye, coho, and chinook species.