Nelma
Species of fish
Stenodus nelma, known alternatively as the nelma, sheefish, siifish, inconnu or connie, is a commercial species of freshwater whitefish in the family Salmonidae. It is widespread in the Arctic rivers from the Kola Peninsula (White Sea basin) eastward across Siberia to the Anadyr River and also in the North American basins of the Yukon River and Mackenzie River.
01Appearance and lifestyle
Stenodus nelma is an anadromous fish, up to 150 centimetres (59 in) in length. The fish has a large mouth with a protruding lower jaw and a high and pointed dorsal fin. It is generally silver in color with a green, blue or brown back. The meat is white, flaky and somewhat oily. An adult fish weighs up to 27 kilograms (60 lb).
The fish eat plankton for their first year of life and then become predators of smaller fish. They live in lakes and rivers and in the brackish water at the outlets of rivers into the ocean. They may migrate more than 1,600 kilometres (1,000 mi) to their upriver spawning grounds, but some populations spend their entire life in fresh water and do not migrate.
02Systematics
Stenodus nelma has previously been considered a subspecies of Stenodus leucichthys (S. leucichthys nelma). The typical Stenodus leucichthys (beloribitsa) is a landlocked Eurasian species restricted to the Caspian Sea basin, and now extinct in the wild.
03Relationship with people
Stenodus nelma is a historically important subsistence food for Native Alaskans in the Yukon and Mackenzie River basins.
It is prized by sport fishers who sometimes refer to it as "Tarpon of the Tundra" due to its leaping and fighting abilities matching that of the tropical Tarpon.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Nelma”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Inuit fishing for sheefish at Selawik NWR.jpg by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public domain
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