Round whitefish

Round whitefish
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Salmoniformes
Family:	Salmonidae
Genus:	Prosopium
Species:	P. cylindraceum
Binomial name
Prosopium cylindraceum (Pennant, 1784)

The round whitefish (Prosopium cylindraceum) is a freshwater species of fish that is found in North American drainages from Alaska to New England, including the Great Lakes except for Lake Erie,^[1] and in Arctic tributaries of northeast Asia, as well as northern Kamchatka Peninsula and the northern coasts of the Sea of Okhotsk.^[2] It has an olive-brown back with light silvery sides and underside and its length is generally between 9 and 19 inches (23 and 48 cm). They are bottom feeders, feeding mostly on invertebrates, such as crustaceans, insect larvae, and fish eggs. Some other fish species, like white sucker in turn eat their eggs. Lake trout, northern pike and burbot are natural predators. Other common names of the round whitefish are Menominee, pilot fish, frost fish, round-fish, and Menominee whitefish. The common name "round whitefish" is also sometimes used to describe Coregonus huntsmani, a salmonid more commonly known as the Atlantic whitefish.

While it was once common, numbers have been decreasing in the last century due to a number of possible causes. The round whitefish is now protected in some states, such as New York, from harvest or possession as an endangered species.^[3] In Alaska, the whitefish is occasionally caught by anglers, but in general, the fish is not sought after, is rarely caught, since it is a bottom feeder; and the species is not protected.^[4][5]