Lake trout

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Lake trout
Lake trout fishes salvelinus namaycush.jpg
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Salmoniformes
Family: Salmonidae
Genus: Salvelinus
Subgenus: Cristovomer
Walbaum, 1792
Species:
S. namaycush
Binomial name
Salvelinus namaycush
(Walbaum, 1792) [1]

The lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) [2] is a freshwater char living mainly in lakes in northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush,lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, and grey trout. In Lake Superior, it can also be variously known as siscowet, paperbelly and lean. The lake trout is prized both as a game fish and as a food fish. Those caught with dark coloration may be called mud hens. [3] [ better source needed ]

Contents

Taxonomy

It is the only member of the subgenus Cristovomer, which is more derived than the subgenus Baione (the most basal clade of Salvelinus, containing the brook trout (S. fontinalis) and silver trout (S. agasizii)) but still basal to the other members of Salvelinus. [4]

Range

From a zoogeographical perspective, lake trout have a relatively narrow distribution. They are native only to the northern parts of North America, principally Canada, but also Alaska and, to some extent, the northeastern United States. [5] Lake trout have been widely introduced into non-native waters in North America [6] and into many other parts of the world, mainly Europe, but also into South America and certain parts of Asia. Although lake trout were introduced into Yellowstone National Park's Shoshone, Lewis and Heart lakes legally in the 1890s, they were illegally or accidentally introduced into Yellowstone Lake in the 1980s where they are now considered invasive. [7]

Description

A lake trout Lake Trout GLERL.jpg
A lake trout

Lake trout are the largest of the chars; the record weighed almost 102 pounds (46 kg) (netted) with a length of 50 inches (130 cm), and 15–40-pound (6.8–18.1-kilogram) fish are not uncommon. The average length is 24–36 inches (61–91 centimetres). The largest caught on a rod and reel according to the IGFA was 72 pounds (33 kg), caught in Great Bear Lake in 1995 with a length of 59 inches (150 cm). [8]

Life history

Lake trout inhabit cold, oxygen-rich waters. They are pelagic during the period of summer stratification in dimictic lakes, often living at depths of 20–60 m (66–197 ft).

The lake trout is a slow-growing fish, typical of oligotrophic waters. It is also very late to mature. Populations are extremely susceptible to overfishing. Many native lake trout populations have been severely damaged through the combined effects of hatchery stocking (planting) and over harvest. Another threat to lake trout is acidification, which can have longterm effects on their populations through both direct harm and reduced prey populations (e.g. Mysis relicta ). [9]

There are three subspecies of lake trout. There is the common lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush namaycush), the siscowet lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush siscowet), and the less common rush lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush huronicus). Some lakes do not have pelagic forage fish during the period of summer stratification. [10] In these lakes, lake trout act as planktivores. Lake trout in planktivorous populations are highly abundant, grow very slowly and mature at relatively small sizes. In those lakes that do contain deep-water forage, lake trout become piscivorous. Piscivorous lake trout grow much more quickly, mature at a larger size and are less abundant. Notwithstanding differences in abundance, the density of biomass of lake trout is fairly consistent in similar lakes, regardless of whether the lake trout populations they contain are planktivorous or piscivorous.[ citation needed ]

A lake trout in spawning dress. Lake trout fish in hands salvelinus namaycush.jpg
A lake trout in spawning dress.

In Lake Superior, common lake trout (S. n. namaycush) and siscowet lake trout (S. n. siscowet) live together. Common lake trout tend to stay in shallower waters, while siscowet lake trout stay in deeper water. Common lake trout (also called "lean" lake trout) are slimmer than the relatively fat siscowet. Siscowet numbers have become greatly depressed over the years due to a combination of the extirpation of some of the fish's deep water coregonine prey and to overexploitation. Siscowet tend to grow extremely large and fat and attracted great commercial interest in the last century. Their populations have rebounded since 1970, with one estimate putting the number in Lake Superior at 100 million. Professor of Zoology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison James Kitchell credits effective constraint of commercial fisheries and persistent sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) control for the successful recovery of Lake Superior's lake trout. "Looking at what has happened in the lake and the results of computer simulations, it is clear that lamprey control needs to continue if Lake Superior is to keep its lake trout." [11]

Hybrids

Lake trout are known to hybridize in nature with the brook trout; such hybrids, known as "splake", are normally sterile but self-sustaining populations exist in some lakes. [12] Splake are also artificially propagated in hatcheries, and then stocked into lakes in an effort to provide sport-fishing opportunities. [13]

Commercial fishing

Fishermen drying a net and hauling lake trout; part of a 1940 mural in the Sturgeon Bay Post Office. Fruits of Sturgeon Bay.jpg
Fishermen drying a net and hauling lake trout; part of a 1940 mural in the Sturgeon Bay Post Office.

Lake trout were fished commercially in the Great Lakes until lampreys, overharvest and pollution extirpated or severely reduced the stocks. Commercial fisheries still exist in some areas of the Great Lakes and smaller lakes in northern Canada. Commercial fishing by Ojibwe for Lake Trout in Lake Superior is permitted under various treaties and regulated by the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC). [14]

Origin of name

The specific epithet namaycush derives from namekush, a form of the word used in some inland Southern East Cree communities in referring to this species of fish. Other variations found in East Cree are kûkamâs[h], kûkamâw and kûkamesh. [15] Similar cognate words are found in Ojibwe: namegos = "lake trout"; namegoshens = "rainbow trout", literally meaning "little lake trout". [16]

Geneva, New York claims the title "Lake Trout Capital of the World," and holds an annual lake trout fishing derby. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trout</span> Freshwater fish from subfamily Salmoninae

Trout is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera Oncorhynchus, Salmo and Salvelinus, all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the family Salmonidae. The word trout is also used for some similar-shaped but non-salmonid fish, such as the spotted seatrout/speckled trout.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brook trout</span> Species of fish

The brook trout is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus Salvelinus of the salmon family Salmonidae native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada. Two ecological forms of brook trout have been recognized by the US Forest Service. One ecological form is short-lived potamodromous populations in Lake Superior known as coaster trout or coasters. The second ecological form is the long-living predaceous anadromous populations which are found in northern lakes and coastal rivers from Long Island to Hudson Bay, which are referred to as salters. In parts of its range, it is also known as the eastern brook trout, speckled trout, brook charr, squaretail, brookie, or mud trout, among others. Adult coaster brook trout are capable of reaching sizes over 2 feet in length and weigh up to 6.8 kg, whereas adult salters average between 6 and 15 inches in length and weigh between 0.5 and 2.3 kg. The brook trout is characterized by its distinctive olive-green body with yellow and blue-rimmed red spots, white and black edged orange fins, and dorsal vermiculation. The diet of the brook trout is restrictive to the season and location of the fish, but will typically consist of terrestrial and aquatic insects, fry, crustaceans, zooplankton, and worms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cutthroat trout</span> Species of fish

The cutthroat trout(Oncorhynchus clarkii) is a fish species of the family Salmonidae native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean, Rocky Mountains, and Great Basin in North America. As a member of the genus Oncorhynchus, it is one of the Pacific trout, a group that includes the widely distributed rainbow trout. Cutthroat trout are popular gamefish, especially among anglers who enjoy fly fishing. The common name "cutthroat" refers to the distinctive red coloration on the underside of the lower jaw. The specific name clarkii was given to honor explorer William Clark, coleader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arctic char</span> Species of fish

The Arctic char or Arctic charr is a cold-water fish in the family Salmonidae, native to alpine lakes, as well as Arctic and subarctic coastal waters in the Holarctic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silver trout</span> Extinct species of fish

The silver trout is an extinct char species or subspecies that inhabited a few waters in New Hampshire in the United States prior to 1939, when a biological survey conducted on the Connecticut watershed by the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department found none.

<i>Salvelinus</i> Genus of fishes

Salvelinus is a genus of 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 distribution, and most of its members are typically cold-water fish that primarily inhabit fresh waters. Many species also migrate to the sea.

The aurora trout, Salvelinus fontinalis timagamiensis, is a variant or subspecies of the brook trout native to two lakes in the Temagami District of Ontario, Canada. The existence of the fish was brought to the attention of the angling world by four American anglers who were taken by Archie King of Latchford, Ontario, into Ontario's Lady Evelyn River system in 1923. Recognizing the fish as different or unique, the anglers took a specimen back to the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, in the United States, where Dr. Arthur W. Henn was asked to identify the fish. He wrote about the fish in 1925 wherein he and Rinckenbach identified it as a distinct species, Salvelinus timagamiensis, but since a seminal re-examination of the material by Sale in 1967, taxonomists now agree the fish is, in a fact, at most a subspecies of the brook trout, named Salvelinus fontinalis timagamiensis. Genetic data has not yet supported its taxonomic distinction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Splake</span> Species of fish

The splake or slake is a hybrid of two fish species resulting from the crossing of a male brook trout and a female lake trout. The name itself is a portmanteau of speckled trout and lake trout, and may have been used to describe such hybrids as early as the 1880s. Hybrids of the male lake trout with the female brook trout have also been produced, but are not as successful.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tiger trout</span> Hybrid fish

The tiger trout is a sterile, intergeneric hybrid of the brown trout and the brook trout. Pronounced vermiculations in the fish's patterning gave rise to its name, evoking the stripes of a tiger. Tiger trout are a rare anomaly in the wild, as the parent species are relatively unrelated, being members of different genera and possessing mismatched numbers of chromosomes. However, specialized hatchery rearing techniques are able to produce tiger trout reliably enough to meet the demands of stocking programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shortjaw cisco</span> Species of fish

The shortjaw cisco is a North-American freshwater whitefish in the salmon family. Adult fish range to about 30 cm (12 in) in length and are silver, tinged with green above and paler below. One of the members of the broader Coregonus artedi complex of ciscoes, it is distributed widely in the deeper lakes of Canada, but populations in the Great Lakes have been declining and it is no longer present in Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie. It feeds mainly on crustaceans and insect larvae and spawns in the autumn on the lake bed. It is part of the important cisco (chub) fishery in the Great Lakes. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as "vulnerable". Shortjaw cisco have however evolved from the cisco Coregonus artedi independently in different lakes and different parts of the range, and conservation assessments therefore should be made on a lake-wise rather than range-wide basis.

<i>Coregonus artedi</i> Species of fish

Coregonus artedi, commonly known as the cisco, is a North American species of freshwater whitefish in the family Salmonidae. The number of species and definition of species limits in North American ciscoes is a matter of debate. Accordingly, Coregonus artedi may refer either in a narrow sense to one of the several types of cisco found e.g. in the Great Lakes, or in a broad sense to the complex of all ciscoes in continental North American lakes, Coregonus artedi sensu lato.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allegheny National Fish Hatchery</span>

The Allegheny National Fish Hatchery was established by Congress in 1959 to produce rainbow, brook, and brown trout for northwestern Pennsylvania streams. Construction began in the late 1960s. Fish production began on site in 1974.

Salmonid herpesvirus 3 (SalHV-3) is a species of virus in the genus Salmonivirus, family Alloherpesviridae, and order Herpesvirales.

Fishing in Colorado has brought in a large amount of revenue for the state. In 2019 Colorado Parks and Wildlife estimated outdoor recreation contributed roughly 62 billion dollars to the state economy. Fishing was reported to be the 5th most popular outdoor activity and 110, 511 fishing and hunting combination licenses were sold. Ice fishing makes up part of this total fishing revenue and is a common annual sport for Colorado residents and out-of-state visitors. There is no legal definition of ice fishing season. Rather, people begin to ice fish once the lakes freeze over with thick enough ice. Colorado Parks and Wildlife also recommend that people always ice-fish with another person. Typically, this starts in December and ends in April for Colorado. Lakes size, depth, elevation, and seasonal weather can cause variance to the season. Once the lakes freeze over with thick enough ice, anglers go out onto the ice, drill holes through the ice, and fish for a variety of species.

References

  1. "Salvelinus namaycush". Integrated Taxonomic Information System . Retrieved 23 November 2013.
  2. "Lake Trout (Mackinaw)". NDOW. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  3. "Mud Hens??". Lake Ontario United - Lake Ontario's Largest Fishing & Hunting Community - New York and Ontario Canada. 9 July 2023.
  4. Phillips, RUTH B.; Oakley, TODD H. (1997-01-01), Kocher, Thomas D.; Stepien, Carol A. (eds.), "CHAPTER 10 - Phylogenetic Relationships among the Salmoninae Based on Nuclear and Mitochondrial DNA Sequences", Molecular Systematics of Fishes, San Diego: Academic Press, pp. 145–162, ISBN   978-0-12-417540-2 , retrieved 2021-02-13
  5. "Salvelinus namaycush Lake trout". Animal Diversity Web. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  6. "NAS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Lake Trout". US Geological Survey. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  7. Munro, Andrew R.; Thomas E. McMahon; James R. Ruzycki (Spring 2006). "Source and Date of Lake Trout Introduction" (PDF). Yellowstone Science. 14 (2).
  8. "International Game Fish Association-Lake Trout". International Game Fish Association. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  9. Ogden, Lesley Evans (2018-11-01). "Acid Rain: Researchers Addressing Its Lingering Effects". BioScience. 68 (11): 928. doi: 10.1093/biosci/biy113 . ISSN   0006-3568.
  10. Rochard, Eric; Elie, Pierre (1994). "La macrofaune aquatique de l'estuaire de la Gironde : contribution au livre blanc de l'Agence de l'eau Adour Garonne" . Retrieved 24 November 2023.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. Moen, Sharon (December 2002). "Siscowet Trout: A Plague of Riches". Minnesota Sea Grant. Retrieved 20 December 2007.
  12. Berst, A. H.; Ihssen, P. E.; Spangler, G. R.; Ayles, G. B.; Martin, G. W. (1980). "The splake, a hybrid charr Salvelinus namaycush x S. fontinalis.". In Balon, E. K. (ed.). Charrs, Salmonid Fishes of the Genus Salvelinus. The Hague: Dr. W. Junk Publishers. pp. 841–887.
  13. "Why Splake?". Maine.gov Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  14. "Lake Superior Treaty Fishery". Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  15. Berkes, Fikret and Marguerite MacKenzie. "Cree Fish Names from Eastern James Bay, Quebec" in Arctic, Vol. 31, No. 4 (December 1978), pp. 489-495
  16. Weshki-ayaad, Lippert and Gambill. Freelang Ojibwe Dictionary Online. Accessed September 21, 2010.
  17. Lake trout derby, Geneva, NY Accessed September 29, 2010.