''Salvelinus profundus'' ( 'Deepwater char') is a deepwater char species found only in deep areas of

Lake Constance Lake Constance (, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein (). These ...

. This fish can reach in length and has a blunt snout with the mouth in subinferior position. Its lower fins have no white margins and its flanks are silvery to yellowish with pale blue spots; the belly can have a reddish color.

History

''Salvelinus profundus'' was still a commercial species in the 1960s but the

eutrophication Eutrophication is a general term describing a process in which nutrients accumulate in a body of water, resulting in an increased growth of organisms that may deplete the oxygen in the water; ie. the process of too many plants growing on the s ...

of Lake Constance, which began in the 1950s and peaked in 1979, is thought to have affected egg development. Surveys undertaken in the last ten years failed to find any evidence of the survival of this deep-water trout, as well as of the Lake Constance whitefish ('' Coregonus gutturosus''), another fish species driven recently to extinction. The species had been reported

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

since the late 1970s but was officially declared so by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

only in 2008. However, the fish species was rediscovered in 2016 during 'Project Lac', a marine survey undertaken by the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. The team had not expected to locate the fish, which had not been seen in decades. It is suspected that they were not detected earlier due to the depth at which they swim. The Lake Neuchâtel deepwater char ('' Salvelinus neocomensis'') is a similar fish species that became extinct in another European lake.Fishbase ''Salvelinus neocomensis''

References

External links

Revue Suisse de Zoologie - Salvelinus evasus
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1341118 profundus Lake Constance Cold water fish Taxa named by Alfred Schillinger Fish described in 1901 Fauna of Germany