Mountain whitefish
Mountain whitefish | |
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16 inches (41 cm) Mountain whitefish, McKenzie River, Oregon | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Actinopterygii |
Order: | Salmoniformes |
Family: | Salmonidae |
Genus: | Prosopium |
Species: | P. williamsoni
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Binomial name | |
Prosopium williamsoni (Girard, 1856)
| |
Synonyms[2] | |
Coregonus williamsoni Girard, 1856 Coregonus oregonius Jordan & Snyder, 1909 Prosopium oregonium (Jordan & Snyder, 1909) |
The mountain whitefish (Prosopium williamsoni) is one of the most widely distributed salmonid fish of western North America.[3] It is found from the Mackenzie River drainage in Northwest Territories, Canada through western Canada and the northwestern USA in the Pacific, Hudson Bay and upper Missouri River basins to the Truckee River drainage in Nevada and Sevier River drainage in Utah.[4]
Description
The body shape is superficially similar to the
Life history
The spawning season is from October to early December, when water temperatures are 2–6 °C. Mountain whitefish congregate in large schools on fall spawning runs and seek out areas of coarse gravels or cobbles at depths of at least 75 cm (30 inches), typically in shallow areas of small tributaries or shorelines of lakes. Their non-adhesive eggs are scattered along the substrate. The eggs then develop slowly through the winter (6–10 weeks), hatching in the early spring, generally in March.[5] Mountain whitefish reach reproductive maturity at approximately three years old, females can produce as many as 4,000 eggs annually.[6] Mountain whitefish typically live between 7–9 years in the wild.
Feeding
Mountain whitefish are
Ecology
Habitat
The mountain whitefish are commonly found in mountain streams and lakes, favoring clear cold water and large deep pools of at least a meter's depth; the Lake Tahoe population lives just above the bottom in deeper water.[9]
Range
This species occurs throughout the western half of North America, as far north as the Mackenzie River (Canada) and the drainages of the Hudson Bay, in the Columbia River, upper Missouri River, upper Colorado River.[10]
Migration
Mountain whitefish are non-
Aging fish
To better understand the conservation and management needs of mountain whitefish biologists seek to understand life history strategies of these fishes. Understanding the growth, age structure, and age at maturity of these fish can better inform limitations on which fish can be harvested and which should be released. If the age at which the fish matures is known, management agencies can estimate sizes of these fishes and inform anglers that no fish under this maturation size may be kept to ensure new generations. The age of these fish can be determined by counting annuli (growth rings) in fish scales, pectoral
Conservation
Mountain whitefish have a secure conservation status.[10] In many of the larger intermountain Western rivers, mountain whitefish are the only native salmonid. Mountain whitefish typically occur in high abundance, in the Snake River Basin in Idaho, mountain whitefish abundance was found to be 1,257/100 m.[13] Historically, mountain whitefish are not popular game fish and have been thrown onto the banks when caught because they are 'trash fish.' Similar to other native salmonids, mountain whitefish have received backlash because anglers believe that they are competing for food and spawning resources for more popular introduced species, like brook trout (Idaho). Due to common misconceptions, some native mountain whitefish populations have been decimated by both management agencies and anglers alike. The health of mountain whitefish, like other salmonids, can be a predictor of the health of the environment that they live in, so understanding and maintaining their populations can be beneficial for ecosystem prosperity.[12]
References
- ^ NatureServe (4 August 2023). "Prosopium williamsoni". NatureServe Network Biodiversity Location Data accessed through NatureServe Explorer. Arlington, Virginia: NatureServe. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
- ^ "Synonyms of Prosopium williamsoni (Girard, 1856)". Fishbase. Retrieved 2014-02-24.
- ^ Wayne C. Starnes. "Prosopium williamsoni (Girard, 1856)". ITIS. Retrieved 2010-12-28.
- ^ L. M. Page and B. M. Burr (1991). "Prosopium williamsoni (Girard, 1856) Mountain whitefish". FishBase. Retrieved 2010-12-28.
- ^ Webmaster, David Ratz. "Mountain Whitefish - Montana Field Guide". fieldguide.mt.gov. Retrieved 2022-04-18.
- ^ Boyer, Jan Katherine (January 2016). "SPAWNING AND EARLY LIFE HISTORY OF MOUNTAIN WHITEFISH IN THE MADISON RIVER, MONTANA" (PDF). Montana State University.
- ^ "Mountain Whitefish (Prosopium williamsoni) - Species Profile". nas.er.usgs.gov.
- ^ Ellison, J.P. (9 January 1980). "Diets of mountain whitefish, Prosopium williamsoni (Girard), and brook trout, Salvelins fontinalis (Mitchell), in the Little Walker River, Mono County, California". California Fish and Game. 66 (2): 96–104.
- ISBN 978-0-520-02975-0.
- ^ a b Webmaster, David Ratz. "Mountain Whitefish - Montana Field Guide". fieldguide.mt.gov.
- ISSN 0706-652X.
- ^ S2CID 55784186.
- S2CID 85075048.