The Crescenti cutthroat trout or the Lake Crescent cutthroat trout is a North American freshwater fish, a local

form Form is the shape, visual appearance, or configuration of an object. In a wider sense, the form is the way something happens. Form also refers to: *Form (document), a document (printed or electronic) with spaces in which to write or enter data ...

(f. loc.) of the

coastal cutthroat trout The coastal cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii''), also known as the sea-run cutthroat trout, blue-back trout or harvest trout, is one of the several subspecies of cutthroat trout found in Western North America. The coastal cutthroa ...

(''Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii'') isolated in

Lake Crescent Lake Crescent is a deep lake located entirely within Olympic National Park in Clallam County, Washington, United States, approximately west of Port Angeles on U.S. Route 101 and nearby to the small community of Piedmont. At an official maxim ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

. While previously attributed to a distinct

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

''Oncorhynchus clarkii crescenti'', it is not currently recognized at the subspecies rank. However the cutthroat trout of Lake Crescent do remain distinct. They have the highest known

gill raker Gill rakers in fish are bony or cartilaginous processes that project from the branchial arch (gill arch) and are involved with suspension feeding tiny prey. They are not to be confused with the gill filaments that compose the fleshy part of the ...

and

vertebra The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic ...

e counts of any coastal cutthroat population. The cutthroat are believed to have been

isolated Isolation is the near or complete lack of social contact by an individual. Isolation or isolated may also refer to: Sociology and psychology *Isolation (health care), various measures taken to prevent contagious diseases from being spread **Is ...

in Lake Crescent after a

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

blocked the eastern outflow of the lake. Before the introduction of non-native trout to the lake, these fish co-existed with the lake's population of coastal

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...

known as

Beardslee trout The Beardslee trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus'' f. ''beardsleei''), formerly ''Salmo gairdneri beardsleei'') is a local form of rainbow trout endemic to Lake Crescent in Washington. Some sources treat them as a subspecies. Known to locals a ...

. The cutthroat mostly used the lake's inlet stream Barnes Creek for

spawning Spawn is the eggs and sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, and the act of both sexes is called spawning. Most aquatic animals, except for aquati ...

, while the rainbow trout used the

Lyre River The Lyre River in the U.S. state of Washington flows out of Lake Crescent in the Olympic National Park and into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Originally referred to as "singing waters" by the indians living near it, the river was first named Rio de ...

for spawning. However, in the early 1980s a small cutthroat population was found in the Lyre River that spawns further downstream than the native rainbow trout. Today the cutthroat of Barnes Creek have been hybridized with introduced rainbow into

cutbow A cutbow ('' Oncorhynchus clarkii'' × ''mykiss'') is an interspecific fertile hybrid between a rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') and a cutthroat trout (''O. clarkii''). Cutbow hybrids may occur naturally where the native ranges of both ...

s, but Crescenti cutthroat trout persist in the Lyre River as a genetically pure population (Behnke 1992). A Crescenti cutthroat caught in 1961 set the state record for cutthroats at and . Behnke, Robert J. ''Native Trout of Western North America'', American Fisheries Society; Monograph 6, 1992 p. 65-69.Trotter, Patrick C. ''Cutthroat: Native trout of the West'', Colorado Associated University Press, 1987, p. 45-47.

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Further reading