The schelly (''Coregonus stigmaticus'') is a living fresh water fish of the

salmon family Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

, endemic to four lakes in the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Its

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

is disputed with some recognizing it as a distinct species and others as a variant of the widespread Eurasian whitefish species ''

Coregonus lavaretus ''Coregonus lavaretus'' is a species of freshwater whitefish, in the family Salmonidae. It is the type species of its genus ''Coregonus''. There are widely different concepts about the delimitation of the species ''Coregonus lavaretus'' and abou ...

''. It is present in

Brothers Water Brothers Water is a small lake in the Hartsop valley, in the eastern region of the Lake District in England. Once called Broad Water, it lies at the northern end of Kirkstone Pass, affording views on the descent towards Patterdale. The name was c ...

Haweswater Haweswater is a reservoir in the valley of Mardale, Cumbria in the Lake District, England. Work to raise the height of the original natural lake was started in 1929. It was controversially dammed after the UK Parliament passed a Private Act ...

Red Tarn Red Tarn is a small lake in the eastern region of the English Lake District, in the county of Cumbria. It is high up on the eastern flank of Helvellyn, beneath Striding Edge and Catstye Cam. Red Tarn was formed when the glacier that carved out th ...

and

Ullswater Ullswater is the second largest lake in the English Lake District, being about long and wide, with a maximum depth a little over . It was scooped out by a glacier in the Last Ice Age. Geography It is a typical Lake District "ribbon lake", ...

, and the population seems stable in all of these except for Haweswater where it seems to be declining. The main threats it faces are seen to be water abstraction and

cormorant Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the IOC adopted a consensus taxonomy of seven ge ...

s, and the fish-eating birds are being culled from Haweswater. The

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has rated the conservation status of this fish as "

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

Taxonomy

In Britain the schelly populations are usually considered as members of the widespread Eurasian whitefish species ''

'', or common whitefish, as with the Welsh

gwyniad The gwyniad (''Coregonus pennantii'') is a freshwater whitefish native to Bala Lake ( cy, Llyn Tegid) in northern Wales. The population is threatened by deteriorating water quality and by the ruffe, a fish introduced to the lake in the 1980s and ...

and Scottish

powan The powan (''Coregonus clupeoides'') is a kind of freshwater whitefish endemic to two lochs in Scotland, Loch Lomond and Loch Eck.Freyhof, J. & Kottelat, M. (2008''Coregonus clupeoides''.In:IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.1. (Ac ...

.Vendace and Powan: the Coregonids
Dualchas Nàdair na h-Alba (Scottish Nature Heritage) (Accessed 17 April 2010) This is supported by morphological evidence, as a review was unable to find any solid evidence for treating them as separate. The schelly is listed as a distinct species of whitefish, ''C. stigmaticus'', in

FishBase FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web.

and by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

Distribution

Schelly is the common name of four populations of

freshwater whitefish The freshwater whitefish are fishes of the subfamily Coregoninae, which contains whitefishes (both freshwater and anadromous) and ciscoes, and is one of three subfamilies in the salmon family Salmonidae. Apart from the subfamily Coregoninae, the ...

in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

. The native populations of this fish inhabit the

and

, and occupy a total area of about 20 square kilometers. Apart from Haweswater, the populations appear stable.

Status

At Haweswater, the fishery officers are now

culling In biology, culling is the process of segregating organisms from a group according to desired or undesired characteristics. In animal breeding, it is the process of removing or segregating animals from a breeding stock based on a specific tr ...

all of the

s that visit the lake, in order to protect the endangered fish. An analysis of reservoir management data over a 30-year period (1961–1991) has revealed that the decline of the schelly population is associated with increased

water abstraction Water extraction (or water withdrawal) is the process of taking water from any source, either temporarily or permanently, for flood control or to obtain water for, for example, irrigation. The extracted water could also be used as drinking wate ...

and reduced water levels. Entrapment during abstraction is not significant. Year class strength is probably determined by lake levels during the January–March spawning and incubation period whereas subsequent growth rate is influenced by lake levels during June–October.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q917704 Coregonus Fish described in 1908