The broad whitefish (''Coregonus nasus'') is a

freshwater whitefish The freshwater whitefish are fishes of the subfamily Coregoninae, which contains whitefishes (both freshwater and anadromous) and ciscoes, and is one of three subfamilies in the salmon family Salmonidae. Apart from the subfamily Coregoninae, ...

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

. Dark silvery in colour, and like a

herring Herring are various species of forage fish, belonging to the Order (biology), order Clupeiformes. Herring often move in large Shoaling and schooling, schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate wate ...

in its shape. Its distinctive features includes: a convex head, short gill rakers, and a mild overbite. It is found in the Arctic-draining

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

s, and

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

s of far eastern

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. Its prey includes larval insects, snails, and shellfish. It is eaten by humans and

brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear native to Eurasia and North America. Of the land carnivorans, it is rivaled in size only by its closest relative, the polar bear, which is much less variable in size and slightly bigger on av ...

Description

The broad whitefish is a herring-shaped fish with a more compressed body and convex head than other whitefishes. It is iridescent, with a dark olive-brown back, silvery grey sides, and a whitish bottom.Froese and Pauly, 2010 Features that distinguish it from other species include a mild overbite and 18–25 short gill rakers. The fins of adults are grey, while those of young fish are grey.Alaska Natural Heritage Program, 2005 It reaches a maximum length of , and a maximum weight of .

Distribution and habitat

The broad whitefish is found in Arctic-draining basins in northern

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

and

from the

Pechora River The Pechora (; Komi: Печӧра; Nenets: Санэроˮ яха) is the sixth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Northwest Russia and into the Arctic Ocean, it lies mostly in the Komi Republic but the northernmost part crosses the Nenets A ...

to the Perry River. Most commonly inhabiting

s, it is also found in

s and

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

with a salinity of less than 15 percent. Fish from freshwater populations sometimes migrate to or through ocean waters, especially in the winter. It is nerito-pelagic, meaning that it is found in inshore open water. Throughout its range it is widespread and abundant, and there are no known threats to its survival,Page and Burr, 1991, p. 39 though it could potentially be threatened by

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing Fish stocks, fish stock), resu ...

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

caused by

oil exploration Hydrocarbon exploration (or oil and gas exploration) is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for hydrocarbon deposits, particularly petroleum and natural gas, in the Earth's crust using petroleum geology. Exploration methods V ...

, and alteration of rivers. It has a number of genetically distinct forms in the various basins it occurs in. It has been stocked successfully in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

and unsuccessfully in

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. An introduction has been made in

Mining, Austria Mining (, as in ''mean-ing'', not as in ''mining'') is a municipality in the district of Braunau am Inn in the Austrian state of Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Up ...

, where a rod and reel record fish was caught in 2002.

Ecology

Recorded items in the broad whitefish's diet are chironomid midges,

mosquito Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a Family (biology), family of small Diptera, flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word ''mosquito'' (formed by ''Musca (fly), mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish and Portuguese for ''little fly''. Mos ...

larvae,

snail A snail is a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gas ...

bivalve Bivalvia () or bivalves, in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class (biology), class of aquatic animal, aquatic molluscs (marine and freshwater) that have laterally compressed soft bodies enclosed b ...

s, and

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

s. It migrates upstream to spawn, except in some estuaries. These migrations are difficult for it, and many individuals become heavily scarred from infestations,

lamprey Lampreys (sometimes inaccurately called lamprey eels) are a group of Agnatha, jawless fish comprising the order (biology), order Petromyzontiformes , sole order in the Class (biology), class Petromyzontida. The adult lamprey is characterize ...

s, and fishing nets. It prefers streams with gravel bottoms, especially those with finer gravel, for spawning. After hatching, larval fish move downstream. In Russia, spawning occurs between July and November in various populations.

As food

This fish is commonly consumed by humans, especially on a subsistence basis, and its good-tasting flesh is sold fresh, smoked, or dried. Also known as ''Chir'', the broad whitefish is one of the species used in the Arctic

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

n dish

stroganina file:Dish Stroganina .jpg, 300px, Prepared ''stroganina'' on a table ''Stroganina'' () is a Dish (food), dish of the northern Russians and Indigenous peoples of Siberia, indigenous people of northern Arctic Siberia consisting of raw, thin, long- ...

. It is also eaten by

s, especially when their preferred

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

is not available.Barker and Derocher, 2009

References

Literature cited

* Alaska Natural Heritage Program (2005)
"''Coregonus nasus.''"
''Fishes Tracking List and Status Reports''. Retrieved 10 February 2010. * Barker, Oliver E., and Derocher, Andrew E. (2009)
"Brown Bear (''Ursus arctos'') Predation of Broad Whitefish (''Coregonus nasus'') in the Mackenzie Delta Region, Northwest Territories."
''Arctic'' 62(3):312–316. Retrieved 15 February 2010. * * * Harris, Les N. (2008)
"Population genetic structure of North American broad whitefish, Coregonus nasus (Pallas), with emphasis on the Mackenzie River system".
Dissertation for the Degree of Master of Science. Retrieved 12 February 2010 * Machacek, Heinz
"Fishing World Records"
''Fishing World Records.'' Retrieved 18 February 2010. * Page, Lawrence M., and Burr, Brooks M. (1991). ''A Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes'' Boston: Houghton Mifflin. * Reist, J. D.; R. A. Bodaly, R. J. P. Fudge, K. J. Cash, and T. V. Stevens (1987). "External scarring of whitefish, Coregonus nasus and C. clupeaformis complex, from the western Northwest Territories, Canada". ''Canadian Journal of Zoology'' 65(5): 1230–1239. .

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q510354 Freshwater fish of the Arctic Coregonus Fish described in 1776