The longjaw cisco (''Coregonus alpenae'') was a deep-water

cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...

or chub, usually caught at depths of 100 metres () or more from Lakes

Huron Huron may refer to: Native American ethnography * Huron people, who have been called Wyandotte, Wyandot, Wendat and Quendat * Huron language, an Iroquoian language * Huron-Wendat Nation, or Huron-Wendat First Nation, or Nation Huronne-Wendat * N ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, and

Erie Erie is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in Pennsylvania and the most populous in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 ...

. Its Latin name was derived from Alpena, a city in Michigan. Silver colored and growing to a maximum length of about 30 centimeters (12 inches) long, the extinction of longjaw cisco was a result of

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 ...

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause harm. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the component ...

of the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

and the disruption of Great Lakes

food chains ''Food Chains'' is a 2014 American documentary film about agricultural labor in the United States directed by Sanjay Rawal. It was the Recipient of the 2015 James Beard Foundation Award for Special/Documentary.James Beard Foundation/ The 2015 Book, ...

after the introduction of the

sea lamprey The sea lamprey (''Petromyzon marinus'') is a parasitic lamprey native to the Northern Hemisphere. It is sometimes referred to as the "vampire fish". It was likely introduced to the Great Lakes region through the Erie Canal in 1825 and the Wel ...

. The systematics of the group of fishes called "ciscoes" is complicated and scientists now generally believe that the longjaw cisco was not a separate species, but a distinctive population of large-bodied individuals of

shortjaw cisco The shortjaw cisco (''Coregonus zenithicus'') is a North-American freshwater whitefish in the salmon family. Adult fish range to about in length and are silver, tinged with green above and paler below. One of the members of the broader ''Coreg ...

(''Coregonus zenithicus''). The deepwater cisco fishery caught longjaw ciscoes and sold them as "smoked

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 ...

". The commercial catch peaked around the 1930s when about one-third of the catch of ciscoes was this species. No individuals have been reported in commercial fish catches since 1967, and in

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

the last individual was recorded from

Georgian Bay The Georgian Bay () is a large bay of Lake Huron, in the Laurentia bioregion. It is located entirely within the borders of Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island. To its northwest is t ...

in 1975.

References

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q309124 Cold water fish Fish of North America becoming extinct since 1500 Coregonus Extinct animals of the United States Fish described in 1924 Taxa named by Walter Koelz