The possibilities of using of captive and domestic broodstocks for saving of natural populations 3. Salmonidae. Subfamily Сoregoninae (part 1)

The problems of formation of broodstocks (BS) of valuable fish species for conservation and recovery of natural populations are discussed. The third review of this series is devoted to representatives of Coregoninae subfamily and divided on two parts. In first part the features of whitefish biology and history of their breeding are discussed. Despite the fact that first successful artificial fertilization of whitefish eggs was performed by V.P. Vrassky at Nikolsky Fish Hatchery, the history of industrial whitefish breeding was began in the Great Lakes basin (North America). By 1880s, Canadian and U.S. fish-breeders had initiated supplemental stocking of fertilized eggs, newly hatched larvae and early fry of whitefish into the Great Lakes and some inland lakes. These efforts continued until the 1960s when it was concluded that they had been ineffective in reversing the declines of depleted populations. In 1980-e the new recovery strategy was launched in Great Lake basin with producing and releasing viable fall fingerlings of whitefish. Similar efforts were made in Western Europe, especially in Finland but Soviet fish-breeders continued ineffective practice of large-scaled releases of larvae and early fry. So do Russian hatcheries in post-Soviet period with special attention to such species as Baikal omul Coregonus migratorius but not rare and endangerous forms (Volkhov whitefish, anadrome Baltic whitefish, Caspian inconnu).The failures of such practice are low survival of fry in nature and continuous needs in large quantity of wild breeders with their sacrification after receiving of fertilized eggs. Domestic BS of whitefish are not popular in conservation aquaculture because of genetic differences on allozyme loci between wild and hatchery fishes. So domestic BS could be used only with genetic control of parents pairs. In second part of review the problems of formation of BS of Atlantic whitefish C. huntsmani and Baltic whitefish C. maraena would be considered.