Whitefish

Whitefish, common name for various species of food fishes native to lakes and streams of the northern hemisphere and related to salmon and trout. Whitefishes inhabit deep waters during most of the year, but migrate in shoals to spawn in the autumn. Highly prized for food, they are caught with nets and sold fresh or smoked. The vendace is a common whitefish of Europe. It has a greeny-blue back and silver sides and belly. It grows to a length of about 15 cm (6 in). The arctic cisco of northern European Russia, also an important food fish, grows to a length of 64 cm (25 in). The commonest American species is the lake whitefish, found chiefly in the Great Lakes. It attains a maximum length of about 61 cm (24 in), is olive green above and white below, has a small, toothless mouth, and feeds mainly on crustaceans. See Herring.

Scientific classification: Whitefishes belong to the family Salmonidae of the order Salmoniformes. The vendace is classified as Coregonus albula, the arctic cisco as Coregonus autumnalis, and the lake whitefish as Coregonus clupeaformis.