The Dolly Varden trout (''Salvelinus malma'') is a

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), ...

salmonid Salmonidae (, ) is a family of ray-finned fish, the only extant member of the suborder Salmonoidei, consisting of 11 extant genera and over 200 species collectively known as "salmonids" or "salmonoids". The family includes salmon (both Atlantic a ...

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

native to cold-water tributaries of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

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 ...

. Despite the name "trout" (which typically refers to freshwater species from the

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

Salmo ''Salmo'' is a genus of ray-finned fish from the subfamily Salmoninae of family (biology), family Salmonidae, and is part of the tribe (biology), tribe Salmonini along with the sister genera ''Salvelinus'' and ''Salvethymus''. Almost all ''Salmo ...

'' and ''

Oncorhynchus ''Oncorhynchus'', from Ancient Greek ὄγκος (''ónkos''), meaning "bend", and ῥύγχος (''rhúnkhos''), meaning "snout", is a genus of ray-finned fish in the subfamily Salmoninae of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native to col ...

''), it belongs to the genus ''

Salvelinus ''Salvelinus'' is a genus of Salmonidae, salmonid fish often called char or charr; some species are called "trout". ''Salvelinus'' is a member of the subfamily Salmoninae within the family Salmonidae. The genus has a northern circumpolar distrib ...

'' (chars), which includes 51 recognized species, the most prominent being the brook,

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 ...

and

bull trout The bull trout (''Salvelinus confluentus'') is a char of the family Salmonidae native to northwestern North America. Historically, ''S. confluentus'' has been known as the " Dolly Varden" (''S. malma''), but was reclassified as a separate speci ...

as well as the

Arctic char The Arctic char or Arctic charr (''Salvelinus alpinus'') is a cold-water fish in the family Salmonidae, native to alpine lakes, as well as Arctic and subarctic coastal waters in the Holarctic realm, Holarctic. Distribution and habitat It Spaw ...

. Although many populations are semi-

anadromous Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousa ...

riverine A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside 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 its course if it run ...

and

lacustrine 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 t ...

populations occur throughout its range. It is considered by taxonomists as part of the ''Salvelinus alpinus'' (Arctic char) complex, as many populations of bull trout, Dolly Varden trout and Arctic char overlap.

Taxonomy

The scientific name of the Dolly Varden is ''Salvelinus malma''. The species was originally named by

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naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

and

taxonomist In biology, taxonomy () is the science, scientific study of naming, defining (Circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxon, taxa (si ...

Johann Julius Walbaum Johann Julius Walbaum (30 June 1724 – 21 August 1799) was a German physician, natural history, naturalist and fauna taxonomist. Works Walbaum was from Greifswald. As an ichthyologist, he was the first to describe many previously unknown fish s ...

in 1792 based on

type specimens In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes t ...

from the

Kamchatka Peninsula The Kamchatka Peninsula (, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific ...

in Siberia. The name ''malma'' was based on

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

, the local colloquial name for the fish. The Dolly Varden trout is considered part of the ''S. alpinus'' or Arctic char complex. For most of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Dolly Varden trout (''S. malma'') and the

(''S. confluentus'') were considered the same species. Additionally, the

(''S. alpinus'') along with the bull trout have ranges that overlap and are remarkably similar in appearance, thus complicating identification. In 1978, inland forms of the Dolly Varden trout were reclassified as ''Salvelinus confluentus'', retaining the common name bull trout. It appears that the first recorded use of the Dolly Varden name for fish referred to ''S. confluentus'', now commonly known as the bull trout. This was likely due to overlapping ranges and similar appearances among members of the two species.

Subspecies

In North America, two subspecies of Dolly Varden are distinguished, the Northern Dolly Varden (''S. m. malma'') of the Arctic drainages and the Southern Dolly Varden (''S. m. lordi'') of the Pacific drainages. These can be distinguished as separate mitochondrial lineages also. The status of the Beringian drainage populations remains unclear. Northern populations on the Russian side of the Pacific down to

Kamchatka The Kamchatka Peninsula (, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific ...

are considered ''S. m. malma'', and the southerly populations make another lineage and subspecies, the Asian Dolly Varden (or southern Dolly Varden) ''S. m. krascheninnikova'' (= '' S. curilus''). The landlocked Miyabe Char (''S. m. miyabei'' Oshima, 1938) from

Lake Shikaribetsu 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 t ...

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

in Japan is also included in the Dolly Varden species.''Salvelinus malma miyabei''

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.

(2014) * ''S. m. malma'' (Walbaum, 1792) (Northern Dolly Varden) * ''S. m. lordi'' (Günther, 1866) (Southern Dolly Varden) * ''S. m. krascheninnikova'' (Taranez, 1933) = ''

Salvelinus curilus ''Salvelinus curilus'' is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family. It inhabits the waters of Russian Far East in the Kurile Islands, Sakhalin, Primorye and also Korea and Japan. It has mostly been considered a subspecies of the Dolly ...

'' (Southern Dolly Varden or Asian Dolly Varden) * ''S. m. miyabei'' (Oshima, 1938) (Miyabe char) The angayukaksurak char (formerly ''Salvelinus anaktuvukensis'') was described as a distinct species on morphological grounds by

Morrow Morrow may refer to: Places in the United States and Canada United States * Morrow, Arkansas *Morrow, Georgia * Morrow, Louisiana * Morrow, Ohio *Morrow County, Ohio *Morrow County, Oregon Canada *Morrow Lake, Ontario *Mount Morrow, Northwest Ter ...

in 1973, but the concept of a separate species status was soon refuted, even by Morrow himself. Further genetic studies have also failed to distinguish this fish from the more widespread Dolly Varden trout (''Salvelinus malma malma''), and it is now considered to represent natural variation within that subspecies.

Origin of common name "Dolly Varden"

The first recorded use of the name "Dolly Varden" was applied to members of ''S. confluentus'' caught in the

McCloud River The McCloud River is a longU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed March 10, 2011 river that flows east of and parallel to the upper Sacramento River, in Siskiyou County, Cal ...

northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...

in the early 1870s. In his book ''Inland Fishes of California'', Peter B. Moyle recounts a letter sent to him on March 24, 1974, from Valerie Masson Gomez: In 1874, Livingston Stone, a naturalist working for the U.S. government, wrote of this fish: Although the name "Dolly Varden" was originally given to the bull trout of the McCloud River, bull trout (''S. confluentus'') and Dolly Varden trout (''S. malma'') were considered the same species (''S. malma'') until 1978. Thus the common name "Dolly Varden" gained acceptance for ''S. malma'' for over 100 years. Additionally, the Arctic char (''S. alpinus'') and Russian subspecies have been referred to as Dolly Varden. It is known as in

Description

The back and sides are olive green or muddy gray, shading to white on the belly. The body has scattered pale yellow or pinkish-yellow spots. There are no black spots or wavy lines on the body or fins. Small red spots are present on the lower sides. These are frequently indistinct. The fins are plain and unmarked except for a few light spots on the base of the caudal fin rays. ''S. malma'' is extremely similar in appearance to the bull trout (''S. confluentus'') and Arctic char (''S. alpinus''), so much so that they are sometimes referred to as "native char" without a distinction.

Range

The Dolly Varden trout is found in coastal waters of the

North Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

from

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ; ) is a complex estuary, estuarine system of interconnected Marine habitat, marine waterways and basins located on the northwest coast of the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. As a part of the Salish Sea, the sound ...

north along the

British Columbia Coast The British Columbia Coast, popularly referred to as the BC Coast or simply the Coast, is a geographic region of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia. As the entire western continental coastline of Canada ...

to the

Alaska Peninsula The Alaska Peninsula (also called Aleut Peninsula or Aleutian Peninsula, ; Sugpiaq language, Sugpiaq: ''Aluuwiq'', ''Al'uwiq'') is a peninsula extending about to the southwest from the mainland of Alaska and ending in the Aleutian Islands. T ...

and into the eastern

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands ( ; ; , "land of the Aleuts"; possibly from the Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', or "island")—also called the Aleut Islands, Aleutic Islands, or, before Alaska Purchase, 1867, the Catherine Archipelago—are a chain ...

, along the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea ( , ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre, p=ˈbʲerʲɪnɡəvə ˈmorʲe) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasse ...

and the

Arctic Sea The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

to the

Mackenzie River The Mackenzie River (French: ; Slavey language, Slavey: ' èh tʃʰò literally ''big river''; Inuvialuktun: ' uːkpɑk literally ''great river'') is a river in the Canadian Canadian boreal forest, boreal forest and tundra. It forms, ...

. The range in Asia extends south through the

into northern

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Life cycle

Dolly Varden are found in three distinct forms. A semi-anadromous or sea-run form migrates from fresh water and spends some time in the ocean or saltwater bays and estuaries to feed before returning to fresh water to spawn. Fluvial forms live in moderate to large freshwater riverine environments and migrate into smaller tributaries to spawn. A third form is found in deep, cold lakes, from where they eventually migrate into tributary streams to spawn. Most populations of the northern Dolly Varden (''S. m. malma'') are semi-anadromous, while more fluvial and lacustrine populations are found among the southern Dolly Varden (''S. m. lordi'').

Conservation

In the early 20th century, the Dolly Varden (still including bull trout, and often confused with Arctic char) suffered from a reputation as an undesirable predator of fish such as salmon, steelhead and cutthroat trout. Despite co-evolving with these other species for thousands of years, Dolly Varden were accused of indiscriminately feeding on eggs and fry of other species to their detriment. Between 1921 and 1941, the

Territory of Alaska The Territory of Alaska or Alaska Territory was an Organized incorporated territories of the United States, organized incorporated territory of the United States from August 24, 1912, until Alaska was granted statehood on January 3, 1959. The ...

, supported by the

U.S. Bureau of Fisheries The United States Fish Commission, formally known as the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, was an agency of the United States government created in 1871 to investigate, promote, and preserve the fisheries of the United States. In ...

, had an official extermination program that paid bounties on Dolly Varden. In the

Iliamna Lake Iliamna Lake or Lake Iliamna ( ; ; ) is a lake in southwest Alaska, at the north end of the Alaska Peninsula, between Kvichak Bay and Cook Inlet, about west of Seldovia, Alaska. It shares a name with the Iliamna River, which flows into it, and th ...

Kvichak River The Kvichak River ( ; Yup'ik: ''Kuicaraq'') is a large river, about long, in southwestern Alaska in the United States. It flows southwest from Lake Iliamna to Kvichak Bay, an arm of Bristol Bay, on the Alaska Peninsula. The communities of Igi ...

region in southwest Alaska, the bounty was 2.5 cents per Dolly Varden tail turned into the territorial tax collector. Locals would trap Dolly Varden in nets and weirs, string 40 tails on a hoop of bailing wire and smoke them over a wood fire. One hoop would be worth one dollar. The fish carcasses would be used for dog food. The hoops of fishtails were then used as currency to pay for supplies, or in some reports, airfare with local bush pilots. The northern Dolly Varden in the Canadian province of British Columbia and in the federal region of the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

is listed as a species of special concern.

Fishing

The Dolly Varden is considered and regulated as a

game fish Game fish, sport fish or quarry refer to popular fish species pursued by recreational fishing, recreational fishers (typically angling, anglers), and can be freshwater fish, freshwater or saltwater fish. Game fish can be fish as food, eaten aft ...

in the U.S. and Canada. Dolly Varden make up a sizable percentage of the catch in Alaskan subsistence fisheries where salmon are not abundant. Anglers will use a variety of lures to catch Dolly Varden, but when fishing during salmon spawning season, salmon roe is the bait of choice.