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''Coregonus albula'', known as the vendace or as the European cisco, is a species of freshwater whitefish in the family Salmonidae. It is found in lakes in northern Europe, especially Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Russia and Estonia, and in some lakes of Norway, the United Kingdom, northern Germany, and Poland. It is also found in diluted 
The vendace is traditionally the most important target of freshwater fisheries in parts of
Phylogenetic relationships among the subfamily Coregoninae as revealed by mitochondrial DNA restriction analysis
''Journal of Fish Biology'' 39 (Suppl A):283-290. Within the vendace, taxonomic subdivisions have been suggested both on geographical grounds and between sympatric ecotypes. FishBase lists the British populations of vendace as a separate species, '' Coregonus vandesius'', but this distinction is not accepted by all scientists. ''Coregonus albula'' generally breeds in the autumn, but in several North European lakes distinct spring-spawning populations of vendace exist, some of which have been described as separate species: in Sweden, as '' Coregonus trybomi'', and in two lakes of northern Germany, as '' Coregonus fontanae'' and ''Coregonus lucinensis''. These populations are sympatric with autumn-spawning vendace and seem to have evolved post-glacially from them independently in each lake.
brackish
Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estua ...
water in the Gulfs of Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...
and Bothnia
The Gulf of Bothnia (; fi, Pohjanlahti; sv, Bottniska viken) is divided into the Bothnian Bay and Bothnian Sea, and it is the northernmost arm of the Baltic Sea, between Finland's west coast ( East Bothnia) and the Sweden's east coast ( W ...
, both of which are in the Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
.
The length of an adult is normally about . The maximum age is about ten years.
The vendace is traditionally the most important target of freshwater fisheries in parts of Fennoscandia
__NOTOC__
Fennoscandia ( Finnish, Swedish and no, Fennoskandia, nocat=1; russian: Фенноскандия, Fennoskandiya) or the Fennoscandian Peninsula is the geographical peninsula in Europe, which includes the Scandinavian and Kola penin ...
and Russia. Vendace roe is considered a delicacy, which has been granted a PDO status in the Swedish Bothnian Bay archipelago (Kalix löjrom
Kalix Löjrom is the designation of the roe of the small salmonid fish species vendace (''Coregonus albula''), harvested specifically from the Bothnian Bay archipelago of the Baltic Sea in northern Sweden. Since 2010 it has a status of Protected ...
).
Description
The vendace is a slim, streamlined fish with an adipose fin - an additional small fin on the back between thedorsal fin
A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through c ...
and the tail (caudal fin), as is typical of the salmon family. Its lower jaw is longer than the upper one. It is similar in appearance to both the common whitefish (''Coregonus lavaretus'' sensu lato), whose upper jaw is longer than its lower one, and the peled (''Coregonus peled''), whose jaws are of equal length. The back is bluish green or brown, the flanks are silvery and the belly white. This fish seldom grows more than long.
Biology
Vendace mainly feed on zooplankton, such as smallcrustacean
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapoda, decapods, ostracoda, seed shrimp, branchiopoda, branchiopods, argulidae, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopoda, isopods, barnacles, copepods, ...
s and their larvae, but larger fish also feed on floating insects and fish fry. The fish live in schools made up of large groups of individuals. They lay their eggs on pebbly or sandy ground, some in shallow water and others at depths of down to . The fish mature at a young age and most spawn for the first time in their second year, but a few may breed in their first autumn.
Systematics
The European vendace is very closely related to the Siberian '' Coregonus sardinella'' (sardine cisco) and also to '' C. peled'', although phenotypic differences are clear.Bernatchez L, Colombani F, Dodson JJ (1991Phylogenetic relationships among the subfamily Coregoninae as revealed by mitochondrial DNA restriction analysis
''Journal of Fish Biology'' 39 (Suppl A):283-290. Within the vendace, taxonomic subdivisions have been suggested both on geographical grounds and between sympatric ecotypes. FishBase lists the British populations of vendace as a separate species, '' Coregonus vandesius'', but this distinction is not accepted by all scientists. ''Coregonus albula'' generally breeds in the autumn, but in several North European lakes distinct spring-spawning populations of vendace exist, some of which have been described as separate species: in Sweden, as '' Coregonus trybomi'', and in two lakes of northern Germany, as '' Coregonus fontanae'' and ''Coregonus lucinensis''. These populations are sympatric with autumn-spawning vendace and seem to have evolved post-glacially from them independently in each lake.
See also
*Cisco
Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q754061 albula Fish described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Freshwater fish of Europe