Kingdom Animalia Order Salmoniformes Genus Coregonus Higher classification Coregonus | Phylum Chordata Family Salmonidae Scientific name Coregonus oxyrinchus Rank Species | |
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Similar Common dab, European flounder, Coregonus, Sand lance, Allis shad | ||
The houting project
The houting (Coregonus oxyrinchus) is a European, allegedly extinct species of whitefish in the family Salmonidae. It is native to the estuaries and rivers draining to the North Sea. The houting is distinguishable from other Coregonus taxa by having a long, pointed snout, an inferior mouth and 38—46 gill rakers. The houting once occurred in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and England.
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Controversial status
There is however controversy whether whitefish surviving in the North Sea sector of Denmark (Wadden Sea) and considered there as houting (snæbel) represent the same species as the houting that was extirpated from the more western parts of the North Sea. A €13 million restoration project of the Danish houting, partly funded by the European Union's LIFE programme and the Danish Natural Agency, was successfully undertaken in 2005–2013. The Danish houting is genetically part of the widespread European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus complex), or Coregonus maraena of the Baltic Sea basin, while its genetic relationship to the extinct populations cannot be confirmed. Danish researchers argue that the morphological differences between different houting populations are not exceptional within the broader variation of the European whitefish, and probably no species-level extinction has taken place. Others think that the morphological differences are decisive, and that the last true houting was caught in the lower Rhine in 1940.
