Yellowtail Snapper truss study

The newly published study compared the accuracy of three forensic tools for yellowtail snapper (Ocyurus chrysurus) caught from three fishing grounds in Honduras. This fish was collected from the western fishing ground in the study.

One of the forensic tools studied was a body-shape analysis. The pins highlight the 10 reference points that can be used to characterize the body shape of an individual fish. The differences between the body shapes were subtle across individuals; however, they were sufficient to determine where a fish was caught with an accuracy of approximately 80 percent.

Photo by Steven Canty / Smithsonian Institution