Coregonus maraena facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Coregonus maraena
Conservation status
Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Synonyms
Salmo maraena Bloch, 1779 Coregonus lavaretus maraena (Bloch, 1779) Coregonus lapponicus Günther, 1866 Coregonus lloydii Günther, 1866 Coregonus maraena pommerana Thienemann, 1916 Coregonus lavaretus vaetterensis Thienemann, 1921 Coregonus lavaretus f. baltica Thienemann, 1922 Coregonus lavaretus f. balticus Thienemann, 1922 Coregonus holsatus vigrensis Litynski, 1923 Coregonus amnipetens Freidenfelt, 1928 Coregonus lavaretus mediospinatus Pravdin, 1931 Coregonus lavaretus bergi Pravdin, 1931 Coregonus lavaretus vygensis Pravdin, 1948 Coregonus lavaretus vygensis telekinae Pravdin, 1948

Coregonus maraena, referred to in English as the maraene, maraena whitefish, vendace, cisco, lake herring, lake whitefish or the whitefish, is a whitefish of the family Salmonidae that occurs in the Baltic Sea basin - in the sea itself and the inflowing rivers, and in several lakes as landlocked populations. It is found in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia (Štrbské pleso), Russia and Sweden. As of 2013, it has been listed as a vulnerable species by the IUCN and as endangered by HELCOM. It is an extremely important fish within the Baltic Sea ecosystem, both for population equilibrium and for the local diets of the surrounding human population. Due to a variety of factors, mostly overfishing, the maraena's population dwindled to near-extinction levels. Thus, rampant repopulation was enacted to preserve this important fish.

In the Baltic basin countries, this species has traditionally been known as Coregonus lavaretus (the common whitefish). The name Coregonus maraena has been adopted following the suggestion that the name Coregonus lavaretus should only be applied narrowly to some whitefish populations in France and Switzerland, as advocated by Kottelat and Freyhof, and repeated by the IUCN and FishBase.