Present Status of Known Populations of the Vendace, Coregonus vandesius Richardson, in Great Britain

Abstract

AT least thirteen different populations of Coregonus have been recorded in Great Britain and Ireland; four of these were of the Vendace, Coregonus vandesius Richardson. The status of these four populations was discussed by Regan¹, who divided them into two sub-species: the Lochmaben Vendace, C. vandesius vandesius, from two lochs near Lochmaben in Dumfriesshire; and the Cumberland Vendace, C. vandesius gracilior, from two lakes in Cumberland. The most recent revisions of the genus in Europe^2–4 agree that C. vandesius in Great Britain is equivalent to C. albula (L.) in Europe, though little evidence is brought forward to prove this. Practically nothing original has been published on the species in Great Britain since 1908 (ref. 1), and, in fact, other than very occasional specimens found accidentally at the water's edge, the species has not been taken in any numbers since the beginning of the century. Because of this, and the fact that several unsuccessful attempts have been made in recent years to capture specimens, many workers have assumed that this fish is extinct in Great Britain, or almost so. Thus it was stated in 1958 of the Loch-maben vendace, “Cette forme doit être considérée comme éteinte”⁴.