Lake Whitefish
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| iLake whitefish | ||||||||||||||
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| Coregonus clupeaformis (Mitchill, 1818) |
Lake whitefish, Coregonus clupeaformis, are freshwater whitefish of North America; members of the salmon family. They are found throughout much of Canada and parts of the northern United States of Minnesota and Michigan, including the Great Lakes. A valuable commercial fish, whitefish are also occasionally taken by sport fishermen.
Their colouration is olive-green to blue on the back, with silvery sides. They have a small mouth below a rounded snout, and a deeply forked tail. They are found in freshwater lakes where they prefer deep, cool water.
Lake whitefish spawn from September through January in water two to four metres in depth. A large spawning migration enters the Athabasca Delta in late summer, moving upstream in the Athabasca River. The longest single movement of a tagged whitefish ever recorded was 388 km (240 miles), from Fort McMurray to the north shore of Lake Athabasca in Alberta Canada.
Natural predators include burbot, lake trout and northern pike.
Primarily bottom feeders, lake whitefish eat crustaceans, snails, insects and other small aquatic organisms.
[edit] References
- Coregonus clupeaformis (TSN 161941). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 18 April 2006.
- "Coregonus clupeaformis". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. January 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
