Arctic Char, Charr

Family Salmonidae

• German: Seesaibling
• Russian: Golec
• Swedish: Röding
• Norwegian: Røye
• Danish: Fjeldørred
• Icelandic: Bleikja
• Faroese: Bleikja
• Greenlandic: Eqaluk
• Other: Hudson Bay salmon, Sea trout

REMARKS Maximum length 1 metre (sea-run fish) or 40 cm (freshwater populations). The sea-run fish have metallic blue or green backs and yellowish sides, marked with a pattern of small spots. The colour of the freshwater races is highly variable.

The distribution of the Arctic char at sea is circumpolar. In the North Atlantic area it descends as far as northern Newfoundland, Iceland and northern Norway; but landlocked freshwater populations are found further south (for example, Lake Windermere in England and Lac Leman in France/ Switzerland, where it is the omble chevalier). To confuse matters further, the species has a close relation, Salvelinus fontinalis (Mitchill), the brook trout or speckled trout, which is a freshwater fish but sometimes descends into the sea, and, indeed, reaches a larger size there than in the rivers and lakes. Sea-run brook trout have steel-blue or green backs and silvery sides.