SEINE Project Fish Identification Key
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Fin Identification
Examples
Species Categories
Single Dorsal Fin
Multiple Dorsal Fins
One Dorsal Fin
More than one Dorsal Fins
Tubular Snout or Bill, elongated body
Elongated bony fishes with long dorsal fin - eels
No pelvic fins and gill openings are short slits and tiny mouth
FlatFish - eyes on one side of body
Free standing spines or tubicals preceeding dorsal fin
Soft rayed dorsal fin, forked caudal fin
Soft rayed dorsal fin, with pelvic fins, dorsal fin not forked
Dorsal fin part spiny and part soft
Broad head armed with spines and winglike pectoral fins - Sculpins; SeaRobins
Large gaps between first and second dorsal fins
Closely spaced dorsal fins - the first spiny and the second soft rayed
Both dorsal fins soft rayed - second much longer than first
Three dorsal fins
Long anal fin or finlets behind anal and dorsal fins
Short anal fin
Fishes with a single dorsal fin; part spiny and part soft rayed
check the statement that best describes the fish you are attempting to identify
Caudal fin is forked; pectoral fins are sharply pointed
Caudal fin is straight or rounded; pectoral fins are rounded
adapted from Marine Animals of Southern New England and New York by Howard M. Weiss
Funding provided by the Long Island Sound Fund administered by the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), through the sale of Long Island Sound license plates and contributions