DESCRIPTION

Whitefish : it is a very fusiform and slender fish despite an exclusively lacustrine habitat. Its body is covered with large scales without stains or colored marks. It is silver-brown or bluish-gray depending on the nature of the background on which it lives. Its head, slightly conical, is relatively small, and its mouth that never exceeds the front edge of his eye. Its flesh is highly esteemed and fairly lean (130 Kcal / 100 g, protein 19%, fat 6%).

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HABITAT

Whitefish (local name: féra, introduced in 1923). It is in the lakes of medium and high altitude that the Whitefish live, not far from the bottom, in more or less compact group.

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WAY OF LIFE

Gregarious fish, it always moves in a group composed of a large number of individuals. It does not have a specific post, but is in the middle of the water, in the layer of water in which it finds food. As a general rule, in spring whitefish occupy areas near the bottom, in depths ranging from 20 to 25 meters. Then gradually with the heat, they go back up and it becomes possible then to locate them between two waters, sometimes up to 6 meters under the surface. In the fall, they tend to go down again near the bottom.

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FOOD

Whitefish is a planktonophagus, which means that it feeds mainly on plankton, especially small plankton. But it also consumes macro invertebrates, including diptera nymphs that emerge from the bottom of the body of water and that provide it with abundant and regular food throughout the annual cycle.

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BREEDING

Sexual maturity is reached at 3 or 4 years of age. The eggs are deposited in sandy and gravelly areas where the female lays 5,000 to 30,000 eggs, which incubate in three or four months.

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THREAT

Until 1890, this fish accounted for up to 68% of catches. The riparian states then began repopulating Lake Leman with whitefishes with the introduction of fry as early as 1903. The coregonids that lived in large numbers in Lake Leman, until the 1920s have almost completely disappeared due to systematic overfishing that lasted several decades. These are massive introductions of young fish from Lake Neuchâtel, which made it possible to reconstitute a large population in the 1940s. Today, Lake Leman's whitefish are only rarely captured by recreational fishermen. Currently, this rearing continues from breeders from the lake itself.

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Whitefish, which benefits from protective measures (legal catch size: 20 cm), is generally fished from March to July, but the period varies according to lakes and regions. It is a fish that is caught in a boat, preferably "Fishing probed", with tiny artificial larvae. It is sometimes necessary to go get it in very important depths.

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The determination of the different whitefish is difficult because of the local breeds, variations observed from one water body to another. Introductions made from subjects of different origins contributed to breed mixtures.

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