FiGDBE 5. — Juvenile sailfish, 216 mm. standard length, Silver Bay Sta. 2172. 



specimens ■■' (one eastern Atlantic specimen has 

 57), and the total number of anal fin rays ranges 

 from 21 to 25 (mean, 23.6) for 143 fish (one eastern 

 Atlantic si>ecimen has 20). Table 1 shows the total 

 numbers of dorsal and anal fin rays for 139 west- 

 ern Atlantic sailfish. 



Table 2 shows the numbers of rays in the 

 anterior and posterior portions of the dorsal fin 

 for 142 western sailfish. The range for the anterior 

 portion is 43 to 50 (mean, 45.0) for 46 specimens 

 (32.4 percent) with six rays in the posterior por- 

 tion (51 for one eastern Atlantic specimen), and 

 40 to 49 (mean, 45.0) for 96 specimens (67.6 per- 

 cent) with seven rays in the posterior portion. Tlie 



■■' The numbers o( fish shown in tables 1 to 4 are not the same. 

 Of the 154 western Atlantic specimens, 139 had complete (un- 

 damaged) dorsal and anal fins, the rest had a complete dorsal 

 or anal fin. or complete anterior or posterior portions of these 

 fins. To take advantage of the greatest number of specimens for 

 correlations. I used all sailfish with counts for desired fins or 

 portions of fins. The same fish were not always involved. 



mean of total number of rays in the dorsal fin is 

 51.0 for western Atlantic siiecimens with six rays 

 in tlie posterior portion and 52.0 for those with 

 seven rays in the posterior portion. 



Table 3 shows the numbers of rays in the 

 anterior and posterior portions of the anal fin for 

 143 western Atlantic sailfisli. The range for the 

 anterior portion is 15 to 19 (moan. 17.3) for 66 

 specimens (46.2 percent) witli six rays in the pos- 

 terior ])ortion (14 for one eastern Atlantic speci- 

 men), and 14 to IS (mean, 16.8) for 77 si)ecimens 

 (53.8 percent) with seven rays in the posterior 

 l)oi-tion. The mean of total numl)er of rays in the 

 anal tin is 23.3 for western Atlantic specimens with 

 six rays in the posterior portion and 23.8 for those 

 with seven rays in the posterior portion. 



Table 4 shows the numbers of fin rays in the 

 posterior portions of the dorsal and anal fins for 

 the western Atlantic sailfish. Nearly half (46.8 

 ])ercent) of 141 specimens have seven rays in this 



Table 1. — Number and (in parentheses) percentage of sailfish with different combinations of dorsal and anal fin 



rays, in a series of 139 specimens from the western Atlantic 



Anal fin rays 



Dorsal fin rays 



47 48 49 50 



Number Number Number Number Number 



21 1 



22 4 3 



(2.9) (2.2) 



23 17 9 



(0.7) (5.0) (6.5) 



24 1 , 3 7 



(0.7) (2.2) (5.0) 



25 2 1 



(1. 4) (0. 7) 



51 



52 53 54 55 56 



Number Number Number Number Number 



1 - 



(0.7) 



1 



(0.7) 



10 8 3 1 



(7.2) (5.8) (2.2) (0.7) 



11 9 8 2 1 

 (7.9) (6.5) (5.8) (1.4) (0.7) 



5 5 6 1 



(3.6) (3.6) (4.3) (0.7) 



Number 



4 

 (2.9) 







(6.6) 



14 



(10. 1) 



1 

 (0.7) 



182 



U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



