The shortnose cisco (''Coregonus reighardi'') is a

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

n freshwater whitefish in the salmon family Salmonidae. One of the members of the broader ''Coregonus artedi'' species complex of ciscoes, it is native to the Great Lakes of Canada and the United States. Its population has been declining and it has disappeared from some of its earlier haunts. The last reported population was restricted to Georgian Bay off Lake Huron in Canada. It is thought that declines in the population of this fish may be linked with the arrival of the sea lamprey (''Petromyzon marinus''), in the Great Lakes. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated the conservation status of this fish as " critically endangered", and possibly

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

Description

Reaching a maximum recorded length of 36 cm (14 in) and a maximum recorded weight of 540 g (1 lb 3 oz), the shortnose cisco is distinguished from the other whitefishes by its thicker body (nearly circular in cross-section), short head (the source of the fish's common name), and small eye.

Ecology

Like many '' Coregonus'' species, the shortnose cisco is poorly understood, and little is known about its breeding or life-cycle except that it spawns in the spring at the lake bottom; the oldest specimen collected was eight years of age. The fish feeds on crustaceans,

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

s, and zooplankton.

Status

It is native to the Great Lakes, formerly occurring in Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Ontario in Canada and the United States. 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 ...

considers ''C. reighardi'' to be Critically Endangered on the basis of plummeting population, caused by

environmental degradation Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment (biophysical), environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; an ...

. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Province of Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources, however, consider the species already

, on the basis that no specimen has been collected since 1985. The species was last confirmed present in Lake Ontario in 1964, in Lake Michigan in 1974, and in Georgian Bay in 1985. Predation by the alien sea lamprey (''Petromyzon marinus''), in combination with commercial

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in th ...

, has contributed to the fish's drastic reduction in numbers and possible extirpation.

References

* *Division of Endangered Species. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
"Extinct Species List"
Fort Snelling, Minn.: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, n.d. Accessed on 12 December 2004. *Flowers, Jonathan

''Canadian Biodiversity Project.'' Montréal: McGill University, 2000. * *Natural Heritage Information Centre. Ministry of Natural Resources. Province of Ontario
"General Element Report: ''Coregonus reighardi''"
Updated 23 October 1997. Toronto: Queen's Printer for Ontario, 2002. {{Taxonbar, from=Q869102 Coregonus Fish described in 1924 Taxa named by Walter Koelz Extinct animals of the United States