Salvelinus grayi | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Actinopterygii |
Order: | Salmoniformes |
Family: | Salmonidae |
Genus: | Salvelinus |
Species: | S. grayi |
Binomial name | |
Salvelinus grayi | |
Synonyms | |
Salmo grayi (Günther, 1862) [3] Contents |
Salvelinus grayi, also called Gray's char[r], Lough Melvin char[r] or freshwater herring, [4] [5] is a species of lacustrine char in the family Salmonidae. [6] [7]
It is only found in Lough Melvin, Ireland; [8] numbers of fish are declining and the species is considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The describer, Albert Günther, named the fish after his longtime colleague John Edward Gray. The English word "char[r]" is thought to derive from Old Irish ceara/cera meaning "[blood] red," [9] referring to its pink-red underside. [10] [11] This would also connect with its Welsh name torgoch, "red belly." [12]
This species grows to an average length of 10 to 12 in (25 to 30 cm) and a weight of 8 ounces (230 g). Compared to other members of the Salvelinus genus, it has a deeper body that is more laterally compressed, a shorter caudal peduncle and larger scales. [13] It can be distinguished from other char by the whitish spots on upper flank and caudal and dorsal fins. [14]
Salvelinus grayi is benthopelagic, living at 10–30 m (30–100 ft), except during the spawning season. It feeds on water fleas (crustaceans of the order Cladocera). It spawns in November, in shallow rocky areas. [14]
Recorded numbers in Lough Melvin declined from 33 in 1975 and 42 in 1986, to only 12 in 2001, and the species is considered critically endangered. Common rudd introduction and eutrophication are blamed for the decline. In 2003, a plan to relocate some of the fish to a nearby reservoir failed when no fish could be found despite extensive search. Nor was the fish observed to be spawning in its traditional spawning locations. The lake has experienced increasing levels of phosphorus as a result of agricultural activities in its catchment area, and char are notoriously sensitive to phosphorus. Another factor in the fish's decline may be the introduction into the lake of rudd and roach. [1]
Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera Oncorhynchus, Salmo and Salvelinus, all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word trout is also used as part of the name of some non-salmonid fish such as Cynoscion nebulosus, the spotted seatrout or speckled trout.
Salmonidae is a family of ray-finned fish that constitutes the only currently extant family in the order Salmoniformes. It includes salmon, trout, chars, freshwater whitefishes, graylings, taimens and lenoks, which are collectively known as the salmonids. The Atlantic salmon, whose Latin name became that of its genus Salmo, is also the source of the family and order names.
The bull trout is a char of the family Salmonidae native to northwestern North America. Historically, S. confluentus has been known as the "Dolly Varden", but was reclassified as a separate species in 1980. Bull trout are listed as a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (1998) and as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
The Atlantic salmon is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. It is the third largest of the Salmonidae, behind Siberian taimen and Pacific Chinook salmon, growing up to a meter in length. Atlantic salmon are found in the northern Atlantic Ocean and in rivers that flow into it. Most populations are anadromous, hatching in streams and rivers but moving out to sea as they grow where they mature, after which the adults seasonally move upstream again to spawn.
The brook trout is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus Salvelinus of the salmon family Salmonidae. It is native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada, but has been introduced elsewhere in North America, as well as to Iceland, Europe, and Asia. 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. A potamodromous population in Lake Superior, as well as an anadromous population in Maine, is known as coaster trout or, simply, as coasters. The brook trout is the state fish of nine U.S. states: Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia, and the Provincial Fish of Nova Scotia in Canada.
The Arctic char or Arctic charr is a cold-water fish in the family Salmonidae, native to alpine lakes and arctic and subarctic coastal waters. Its distribution is Circumpolar North. It spawns in freshwater and populations can be lacustrine, riverine, or anadromous, where they return from the ocean to their fresh water birth rivers to spawn. No other freshwater fish is found as far north; it is, for instance, the only fish species in Lake Hazen which extend up to 81°56′N68°55′W on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic. It is one of the rarest fish species in Great Britain and Ireland, found mainly in deep, cold, glacial lakes, and is at risk there from acidification. In other parts of its range, such as the Nordic countries, it is much more common, and is fished extensively. In Siberia, it is known as golets and it has been introduced in lakes where it sometimes threatens less hardy endemic species, such as the small-mouth char and the long-finned char in Elgygytgyn Lake.
Sea trout is the common name usually applied to anadromous (sea-run) forms of brown trout, and is often referred to as Salmo trutta morpha trutta. Other names for anadromous brown trout are sewin (Wales), peel or peal, mort, finnock (Scotland), white trout (Ireland) and salmon trout (culinary).
The silver trout is an extinct char species or variety that inhabited a few waters in New Hampshire prior to 1939, when a biological survey conducted on the Connecticut watershed by the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department found none.
The Dolly Varden trout is a species of salmonid fish native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. It belongs to the genus Salvelinus, or true chars, which includes 51 recognized species, the most prominent being the brook, lake and bull trout, as well as Arctic char. Although many populations are semi-anadromous, fluvial and lacustrine populations occur throughout its range. It is considered by taxonomists as part of the Salvelinus alpinus or Arctic char complex, as many populations of bull trout, Dolly Varden trout and Arctic char overlap.
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.
Lough Melvin is a lake in the northwest of the island of Ireland on the border between County Leitrim and County Fermanagh. It is internationally renowned for its unique range of plants and animals.
The gillaroo is a species of trout which eats primarily snails and is only proven to inhabit Lough Melvin in Ireland.
The westslope cutthroat trout, also known as the black-spotted trout, common cutthroat trout and red-throated trout is a subspecies of the cutthroat trout and is a freshwater fish in the salmon family of order Salmoniformes. The cutthroat is the Montana state fish. This subspecies is a species of concern in its Montana and British Columbia ranges and is considered threatened in its native range in Alberta.
The Sunapee trout; also called blueback trout, Sunapee Golden trout, or Quebec red trout; is a putative subspecies of Arctic char native to the northeast United States, Québec, and New Brunswick. Originally described as three separate species--S. oquassa, the blueback trout of Lake Oquassa in Maine (1854), S. aureolus the golden trout of Sunapee lake in New Hampshire (1888) and S. marstoni the Quebec red trout (1893).
A kype is a hook-like secondary sex characteristic which develops at the distal tip of the lower jaw in some male salmonids prior to the spawning season. The structure usually develops in the weeks prior to, and during, migration to the spawning grounds. In addition to the development of the kype, a large depression forms in the two halves of the premaxilla in the upper jaw, allowing the kype to fit into the premaxilla when the mouth is closed.
Salvelinus colii, also called Cole's char, Enniskillen char or Trevelyan's char, is a cold-water species of char fish in the family Salmonidae.
The Coomsaharn char is a species of lacustrine char fish in the family Salmonidae.
Salvelinus obtusus, commonly called the blunt-nosed Irish charr or blunt-snouted Irish char, is a species of lacustrine char fish in the family Salmonidae, found in the Lakes of Killarney, Ireland.
Gray's Char.