The establishment of Scotland’s rarest freshwater fish, the vendace (Coregonus albula), in conservation refuge sites

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2019

Original Publication

The Glasgow naturalist

Volume

27

Series / Issue

Issue: 1

Pages

27-31

Contributed by

Glasgow Natural History Society

Language

English

Published by

Glasgow Glasgow Natural History Society

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37208/tgn27104

 

Abstract

In recent decades conservation measures for the rarest freshwater fish in the U.K., the vendace (Coregonus albula), have included attempts to form conservation refuge populations in Scotland. Here we report that at two of these refuge sites where the status of the introduced vendace was previously unknown (Loch Earn and Daer Reservoir) surveys have established that vendace are reproducing successfully in situ, albeit that these populations appear to be relatively numerically small. At a third site, Loch Valley, there was no evidence of vendace in the survey, but it is possible that a small, but as yet undetectable population is in the process of establishing.