The gwyniad (''Coregonus pennantii'') is a
freshwater whitefish native to
Bala Lake ( cy, Llyn Tegid) in northern
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
.
The population is threatened by deteriorating water quality and by the
ruffe, a fish introduced to the lake in the 1980s and now eating the eggs and fry of gwyniad. As a conservation measure, eggs of gwyniad were transferred to
Llyn Arenig Fawr
Llyn Arenig Fawr is a lake and reservoir located near the summit of Arenig Fawr, a mountain in North Wales.
The lake's primary purpose is to supply water to the nearby town of Bala and the numerous small villages in the surrounding area. From t ...
, a nearby reservoir, between 2003 and 2007.
The taxonomy of the genus ''
Coregonus'' is disputed;
some authorities assign the gwyniad to the
common whitefish (''Coregonus lavaretus''),
and a morphological review in 2012 was unable to find any solid evidence for recognizing the gwyniad as a separate species.
[Etheridge, E.C.; C. E. Adams; C. W. Bean; N. C. Durie; A. R. D. Gowans; C. Harrod; A. A. Lyle; P. S. Maitland; and I. J. Winfield (2012). Are phenotypic traits useful for differentiating among a priori Coregonus taxa? Journal of Fish Biology 80: 387–407. ] FishBase
FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web. and the
IUCN
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...
list it as a distinct species, ''C. pennantii''.
See also
*
Powan
The powan (''Coregonus clupeoides'') is a kind of freshwater whitefish endemic to two lochs in Scotland, Loch Lomond and Loch Eck.Freyhof, J. & Kottelat, M. (2008''Coregonus clupeoides''.In:IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.1. (Ac ...
*
Schelly
*
Vendace
References
External links
''Coregonus pennantii''.Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).
Coregonus
Endemic fauna of Wales
Fish described in 1848
{{Salmoniformes-stub