The establishment of Scotland’s rarest freshwater fish, the vendace (Coregonus albula), in conservation refuge sites

Abstract

In recent decades conservation measures for the rarest freshwater fish in the U.K., the vendace (Coregonus albula), have included attempts to form conservation refuge populations in Scotland. Here we report that at two of these refuge sites where the status of the introduced vendace was previously unknown (Loch Earn and Daer Reservoir) surveys have established that vendace are reproducing successfully in situ, albeit that these populations appear to be relatively numerically small. At a third site, Loch Valley, there was no evidence of vendace in the survey, but it is possible that a small, but as yet undetectable population is in the process of establishing.