Pink salmon is the largest and smallest salmon. Pink salmon meat, although slightly inferior to most Pacific salmon, is still a very tasty and nutritious product. In stores, pink salmon can be bought both frozen and chilled, as well as smoked and salted. Male pink salmon are fatter than females, but you can find delicious caviar in females. So how do you distinguish them when buying?
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Instruction manual
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The female pink salmon is usually smaller in size than the male. Some male pink salmon can reach 4–4.5 kg in weight, while the average female weight is 1.5–2 kg. But in fact, this is not an indicator, since the size of the fish depends on its habitat; in some regions, the size of the male may be as little as 350-500 g.
2
Female meat is generally drier than male meat. But this symptom can be determined only by tasting fish meat. In appearance, the more so if the fish is frozen, it is impossible to say whether it has fat meat or not.
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Accurately distinguish the male pink salmon from the female in the store by their color. If you compare it, you can see that the female, as is often the case in nature, has a more nondescript appearance. She has smoother outlines and color transitions, on the whole she looks gray and rustic, while the male, on the contrary, looks more bright and coarse.
4
Another reliable way to distinguish a female from a male pink salmon is to compare their heads, or rather the shape of their heads. The male’s head is more elongated and sharper. The jaws are quite elongated and as if bent up. Outwardly, the muzzle of the male has a rather predatory appearance. The head of the female is slightly smaller, more rounded and with a much more blunt nose.
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Also, in female pink salmon, the back fin has a slight elongation, while in the male the same fin is absolutely even, due to which it is slightly smaller in size.
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If the male pink salmon managed to spawn, then it can easily be identified by the back. In addition to the fact that both males and females glaze and acquire a brown-white-green color, so the males, moreover, when they enter fresh water, acquire a different body shape. A peculiar characteristic hump appears on their back (hence the name of the fish - pink salmon). The back of the females remains flat and fairly straight.