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NAS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species |
Common Name: powan
Synonyms and Other Names: (lavaret, common whitefish, schelly, gwyniad, lavarello).
Identification: Coregonus lavaretus presumably represents a species complex and is need of systematic review. Berg (1948) recognized many different subspecies or variants. Coregonus wartmanni (T. Todd and R. J. Behnke, personal communication) and Coregonus maraena are considered junior synonyms. Ladiges and Vogt (1986) placed C. maraena in the C. lavaretus group and provided illustrations of C. maraena and other group members. Illustrations of C. lavaretus were also provided by Berg (1948), Maitland (1977), and Wheeler (1978). See also Wheeler (1969).
Size: 130 cm.
Native Range:
Northern Europe and Siberia (Berg 1948), also the Baltic and North Seas basin, Britain, and the Swiss Alps (Leviton 1996).
Nonindigenous Occurrences: Several shipments of "C. albula" eggs were received between 1884 and 1886 (Smiley 1885b; Baird 1889; Bean 1892a). Some, or all, of these fish actually may have been C. lavaretus (Todd 1983). Thousands of hatched young from these eggs were stocked in Heart Pond and Lake Hebron, Maine (Smiley 1885b; Baird 1889; Bean 1892a; Todd 1983). Kendall (1914a) referred to the stocking of "C. albula" in Maine under the name Leucichthys albula. Several hundred young fish, originally identified as Coregonus maraena, were stocked into Gardner's Lake, Otsego County, Michigan, in 1877 (Baird 1878; Todd 1983).
Means of Introduction: Coregonus lavaretus, or a related species, was intentionally stocked as a food fish. Shipments were imported by the U.S. Fish Commission from Germany in the 1880s (Todd 1983). According to Baird (1878), 1,000 eggs of what was identified as C. maraena were shipped from Poland to Michigan in 1877. The eggs were provided to the Michigan State Hatching House in Detroit and hatched in captivity. A total of 409 of the young fish were stocked in Gardner's Lake (Baird 1878; Todd 1983). Baird (1878) considered the stocking an experimental introduction of a European food fish.
Status: Reported from Michigan (Baird 1878). The introductions in Maine failed (Kendall 1914a).
Impact of Introduction: Unknown.
Remarks: There is much confusion surrounding the positive identification of whitefish imported from Germany in the late 1800s For instance, Baird (1878) reported that the eggs brought to the United States from Europe and introduced into Michigan represented the `Madue maraena' whitefish Coregonus maraena. Berg (1948) treated that form as a subspecies of C. laventer, (i.e., C. laventer maraena) indicating the subspecies was native to Lake Madue in northwest Poland. A large number of whitefish eggs imported from Germany during the 1880s were reported as C. albula (e.g., Smiley 1885b; Baird 1889; Bean 1892a). However, the fish imported from the hatcheries on the Bodensee, a lake bordering Germany (such as the 1885 shipment and possibly others) were more likely C. lavaretus (Todd 1983).
Other Resources:
Species Summary for Coregonus lavaretus powan (FishBase)
FishBase Fact Sheet
Author: Pam Fuller
Revision Date: 6/3/2004 Citation for this information:
Pam Fuller. 2009. Coregonus lavaretus. USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL.
<http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.asp?speciesID=888> Revision Date: 6/3/2004
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