Houting - Coregonus oxyrinchus

Image: A houting by H. Dupond in Poll (1947), figure 102. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. A larger version of this image can be found on the website of VLIZ. www.wetenschatten.be.

Image:A houting's head, figure. 294, on page 648 from 'An Introduction to the Study of Fishes' by Albert C L.G. Günther (1880). This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to the European Union, the United States, Canada and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.

Salmo oxyrinchus Linnaeus, 1758; Salmo thymallus latus Bloch, 1782; Tripteronotus hautin Lacepède, 1803; Salmo rostratus Shaw, 1804; Coregonus oxyrhynchus (Linnaeus, 1758) [misspelling]; Coregonus lavaretus oxyrinchus (Linnaeus, 1758); Coregonus lavaretus oxyrhynchus (Linnaeus, 1758) [misspelling]; Coregonus lavaretus oxyrynchus (Linnaeus, 1758) [misspelling].

The houting, Coregonus oxyrinchus, is redescribed and a neotype is designated (BMNH 1862.11.20.1.). 'Houtings' from the Danish North Sea basin and German rivers from Eider, Elbe west to Ems are Coregonus maraena, a species widespread in Baltic basin (Hansen et al. 1999; Freyhof & Schöter, 2005). The 'Houtings' found in the Rhine are introduced Coregonus maraena and a yet unknown and undescribed species called Coregonus sp. 'Rhine' (Freyhof & Schöter, 2005).

However, according to other scientists it is not possible to conclude that the extinct houting from the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Schelde is a separate species solely based on differences in gill rakers (Hansen et al. 2008; Winter et al. 2008). This is based among others on research (Østbye et al 2005) that claims that the number of gill rakers is higly variable in closely related groups within the Coregonus lavaretus complex and that there is no relation with the genetic line from which populations descended (Winter et al. 2008). At this moment there is no genetic research available and the degree of genetic exchange and affinity between the extinct 'North Sea Houting' from the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt (Coregonus oxyrinchus) and the 'European Whitefish from Denmark (Coregonus maraena) is unknown (Winter et al. 2008).

Future genetic research will probably reveal a more clear image of the taxonomy of the houting. Yet, The Sixth Extinction website follows the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (version 2010.4) (Freyhof & Kottelat 2008) and lists Coregonus oxyrinchus as globally extinct.

Coregonus oxyrinchus is distinguished from other coregonids by having 38-46 gill rakers and a long, pointed snout (Freyhof & Schöter, 2005).

The Houting fed on zooplankton, supplemented by benthic invertebrates in adults. (Freyhof & Kottelat, 2008)

The Houting spawns in October-December in rivers. Young move to brackish habitats where they remain until maturity. (Freyhof & Kottelat, 2008)

The houting occurred in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (Freyhof & Schöter, 2005; Freyhof & Kottelat, 2008). This species was restricted to the southeast coast of England and the lower parts of the Rivers Rhine, Meuse (exceptionally northern France) and Schelde (Freyhof & Kottelat, 2008; Freyhof & Schöter, 2005). It ascended the River Rhine up to Köln. However, it is recorded to have reached Strasbourg in France, but this is probably erroneous. (Freyhof & Kottelat, 2008) The houting had never been found in pure marine waters in the Netherlands (Redeke, 1934), therefore the houting does not normally leave estuarine waters.

Image: map with the possible historical distribution of the Houting (in red). Created by Peter Maas for The Extinction Website. This image has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 3.0 Licence.

The houting is known to have occurred in England. Single specimens have been collected from Lincolnshire in 1877, Chichester in 1880, and the mouth of the River Medway in 1881 (Day, 1880-1884). Another specimen is labelled as coming from the 'South Coast of England' (Freyhof & Schöter, 2005). In 1911, C.T. Regan reported the houting in England only from markets, where they had been imported from the Netherlands. It is unlikely that houting colonised English waters by marine dispersal from continental European rivers, as this species has never been recorded in pure marine waters in the Netherlands (Redeke, 1034). The English population probably represented a relict houting population that had dispersed to in southern England in early glacial periods, when there was less of a marine barrier. It probably became extinct in England in the late 19th century. (Freyhof & Schöter, 2005)

After its decline during the late 19th century, the remaining houting population in the lower Rhine collapsed in the first three decades of the 20th century (Lelek & Buhse, 1992; Freyhof & Schöter, 2005). The houting is now considered globally extinct; the last individual was caught in the lower Rhine in 1940 (Bauch, 1958; Lelek & Buhse, 1992; Freyhof & Schöter, 2005). Many surveys have been undertaken since (most recently in 2005) within its previous range, and the species has never been recorded (Freyhof & Kottelat, 2008).

The houting relied upon estuaries and brackish water to forage, where pollution was at it its most concentrated and coregonids are very sensitive to pollution (Freyhof & Kottelat, 2008). The houting became extinct due to pollution and overfishing (Lelek & Buhse, 1992).

The houting is listed as a species of priority interest to nature conservation in Europe (EWG, 1997). Attempts at re-introduction of houting to the Rhine began in 1992 with fish originating from the River Vida, Denmark (Freyhof, 2002). Now it is known that these 're-introduced' fish are not true houting, but from the species Coregonus maraena. (Freyhof & Schöter, 2005)

The neotype specimen and one other specimen are kept in the Natural History Museum (BMNH) in London, England. Other specimens can be found in the Naturhistorisches Museum Bern (NMBE) in Switzerland, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN) in Paris in France, Zoölogisch Museum Amsterdam (ZMA) in the Netherlands, and the Zoologische Staatssammlung München (ZSM) in Germany. (Freyhof & Schöter, 2005)

Relatives of the Houting are the surviving European Coregonus species, like Coregonus lavaretus (Common Whitefish or Lavaret), Coregonus maraena (Maraene), Coregonus widegreni and the undescribed Coregonus sp. 'Rhine' . Several Maraenes (Coregonus maraena) from the river Vida in Denmark have been introduced in the river Rhine, the former range of the now globally extinct houting.

Photo: Maraene (Coregonus maraena) at Aqua Silkeborg in Denmark. Photographed by N. Sloth. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported license (Source: Encyclopedia of Life (EOL)).

Houting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bailly, N. (2010). Coregonus oxyrinchus (Linnaeus, 1758). In: Nicolas Bailly (2010). FishBase. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=154238 on 2010-11-17

Bauch, G. (1958). Untersuchungen über die Gründe für den Ertragsrückgang der Elbfischerei zwischen Elbsandsteingebirge und Boitzenburg. Zeitschrift für Fischerei und deren Hilfswissenschaften 7, 161—437.

Day, F. (1880-1884). The Fishes of Great Britain and Ireland. London & Edinburgh: Williams & Norgate.

EWG (1997). Richtlinie 97/62/EG des Rates vom 27 Oktober 1997 zur Anpassung der Richtlinie 92/42/EWG zur Erhaltung der natu¨ rlichen Lebensra¨ume sowie der wild lebenden Tiere und Pflanzen an den technischen and wissenschaftlichen Fortschritt. Amtsblatt der Europa¨ischen Gemeinschaften Reihe L305, 42—65.

Freyhof, J. (2002). Freshwater fish diversity in Germany, threats and species extinction. In Conservation of Freshwater Fishes: Options for the Future (Collares-Pereira, M. J., Cowx, I. G. & Coelho, M. M., eds), pp. 3-22. Oxford: Blackwell Science.

Freyhof, J. & Kottelat, M. (2008). Coregonus oxyrinchus. In: IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.4. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 19 November 2010.

Freyhof, J. and C. Schöter. (2005). The houting Coregonus oxyrinchus (L.) (Salmoniformes: Coregonidae), a globally extinct species from the North Sea basin. Journal of Fish Biology 67:3, 713-729.

Hansen, M. M., Mensberg, K.-L. D. & Berg, S. (1999). Postglacial recolonization patterns and genetic relationships among whitefish (Coregonus sp.) populations in Denmark, inferred from mitochondrial DNA and microsatellite markers. Molecular Ecology 8, 239-252.

Hansen,M.M.,FraserD.J.,Als,T.D.&Mensberg,K.L.D.(2008).Reproductiveisolation,evolutionary distinctivenessandsettingconservationpriorities:ThecaseofaEuropeanlakewhitefishandthe endangeredNorthSeahouting(Coregonusspp.).BMCEvolutionaryBiology8:137doi10.1186/14716 2.

Lelek, A. & Buhse, G. (1992). Fische des Rhein - früher und heute. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer.

Østbye K., Bernatchez L., Naesje T..F, Himberg K.J.M., Hindar K. (2005).Evolutionary history of the European whitefish Coregonus lavaretus (L.) species complex as inferred from mtDNA phylogeography and gill-raker numbers. Molecular Ecology, 14:4371-4387.

Poll, M. (1947). Poissons marins. Faune de Belgique, 1. Le Patrimoine du Musée Royal d'Histoire Naturelle de Belgique/Musée Royal d'Histoire Naturelle de Belgique: Brussels, Belgium. 452 pp.

Redeke, H. C. (1934). Über den Rheinschnäpel, Coregonus oxyrhynchus L. Verhandlungen der Internationalen Vereinigung für Limnologie 6, 352-357.

Regan, C. T. (1911). The Freshwater Fishes of the British Isles. London: Methuen.

Schöter C., 2002. Revision der Schnäpel und Großen Maränen des Nordseeund südwestlichen Ostseeraumes (Teleostei: Coregonidae). Diplomarbeit, Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn.

Winter, H.V., J.J. de Leeuw & J. Bosveld. (2008). Houting in het IJsselmeergebied. Een uitgestorven vis terug? Rapport nummer C084/08. Wageningen IMARES.