Re: pin bones in salmonids

Andrew Strak (abstrak@auracom.com)
Wed, 25 Nov 1998 11:06:53 -0400

Hi Jay. I'm afraid your inquiry may provide a real challange to seafood
technologists for whom the exact number of pin bones is not always of any
serious concern. There are definitely plenty of pin bones in any salmonid
species with a total number in excess of several dozens per fillet. The
number of pin bones should be correlated with the number of myotomes and
consequently with the number of vertebraes and ribs though numerically it
should be different from them. However, there is a significant inter-species
difference in their numbers and some intra-species variances as well. It is
not unusual to find the difference of 1-2 vertebraes between two different
speciemen. In your case, probably an ichthyologist involved in fish taxonomy
should be more competent than any technologist and you should find them at
Fish-Science, Aqua-L and similar groups. Unfortunately, at present I am not
subscribed to any of them and therefore cannot offer any leads how to
contact them.

Best regards,

Andrew Strak

-----Original Message-----
From: Jayharlow@aol.com <Jayharlow@aol.com>
To: seafood@ucdavis.edu <seafood@ucdavis.edu>
Date: Monday, November 16, 1998 3:42 PM
Subject: pin bones in salmonids

>Does anyone know offhand the number of pin bones in each of the common
>salmonids -- Atlantic, chinook, coho, chum, pink, rainbow trout/steelhead?
Is
>it a fixed number per species/genus? How is the number related to the
number
>of ribs? I am also assuming that the number of pin bones is fixed by the
time
>the fish reach adult shape, and that they grow in size but not in number as
>the fish grows. If anyone has this information at their fingertips, or can
>refer me to where to look it up, I'd appreciate the help.
>
>Jay Harlow
>
>