The whitefish project aims to answer applied and fundamental questions related to the near-extinction and current reexpansion of the endangered anadromous North Sea houting (NSH) and Baltic houting (BH) (alternatively classified as the separate species Coregonus oxyrinchus and C. lavaretus or as different varieties of C. maraena). These taxa have a turbulent conservation history in Germany. Once important fisheries species, construction of migration barriers and habitat loss led to their local extinction (NSH) or near-extinction (BH) by the 1960s. Stocking with NSH from the last remnant population in the Danish river Vida in 1987 then led to the reintroduction in the German Treene River, which subsequently served as stepping stone for stocking of the rivers Elbe and Rhine (North Sea drainage). Similarly, BH was reintroduced from a refuge Baltic population to rivers draining into the Baltic Sea.
Over the past two and a half years, this project has provided the first biological baseline study of these populations (Figure 1), both to assist resource managers to make informed decisions in conservation programs, and to understand evolutionary consequences of reintroductions and stocking programs.
Genetic tools applied in this study include microsatellite analysis and mtDNA analysis, as well as 454-sequencing of genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Ecological tools include stable isotope analysis, otolith microchemistry, morphometrics, and standard fish biology measures.
The whitefish work has been a collaboration of Dr. Chris Eizaguirre (EV) and Dr. Jan Dierking (EV), with numerous other scientists providing additional samples, data and support (most notably, Kim Praebel, University of Tromsoe, Jost Borcherding, University of Cologne, and Matthias Brunke of the German Landesamt für Landwirtschaft, Umwelt und Ländliche Räume (LLUR)). It has been funded by the LLUR and the Fishery Society of the British Isles, and would not have been possible without the voluntary support from a great number of field helpers, fishermen, and conservation groups.
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