Burbot

 

Burbot
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Gadiformes
Family:	Lotidae
Genus:	Lota Oken, 1817
Species:	L. lota
Binomial name
Lota lota (Linnaeus, 1758)

Burbot, Lota lota

The burbot (Lota lota) is the only gadiform (cod-like) freshwater fish. Also known as mariah, the lawyer, and (misleadingly) eelpout, the burbot is closely related to the marine common ling and the cusk. It is the only member of the genus Lota.

Etymology

The name burbot comes from the Latin word barba, meaning beard, referring to the single chin whisker, or barbel. The genus and species name "lota" comes from the old French "lotte", fish named also "barbot" in this language. The Inuktitut–Iñupiaq word for burbot was also used to name the recently discovered extinct transitional species Tiktaalik.

Description

Like a cross between the catfish and the eel, the burbot has a serpentine-like body, but is easily distinguished by a single barbel on the chin. The body is elongated and laterally compressed with a flattened head and single tube-like projection for each nostril. The mouth is wide, with both upper and lower jaws consisting of many small teeth. Burbot have two soft dorsal fins: the first being low and short, the second being much longer. The anal fin is low and almost as long as the dorsal fin. The caudal fin is rounded, the pectoral fins are fan-shaped, and pelvic fins are narrow with an elongate second fin ray. Having such small fins relative to body size indicate a benthos lifestyle with low swimming endurance, unable to withstand strong currents. The circular or cycloid scales are very small, making it difficult to accurately age, and thus even more challenging to manage.

Geographic Distribution

Burbot have circumpolar distribution above 40°N latitude. Populations are continuous from the British Isles eastward across Europe and Asia to the Bering Strait. On the North American side, burbot range eastward from the Seward Peninsula in Alaska to New Brunswick along the Atlantic coast. Burbot are most common in streams and lakes of North America and Europe. They are fairly common in Lake Erie but are also found in the other Great Lakes. Recent genetic analysis suggest that the geographic pattern of burbot may indicate multiple species or sub-species, making this single taxon species somewhat misleading.

United Kingdom

In Britain, the burbot is possibly an extirpated fish as it is believed that there have been no documented catches of the species since the 1970s. [2] If the burbot does still survive in the UK, the counties of Cambridgeshire and Yorkshire (particularly the River Derwent or River Ouse) seem to be the strongest candidates for areas in which the species might yet continue to survive [3]. There have been plans to re-introduce this freshwater member of the cod family back into British waters but these have yet to come to fruition.

Ecology

Habitat

Burbot live in large, cold rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Primarily preferring freshwater habitats, but able to thrive in brackish environments for spawning. During summer months, they are typically found in the colder water below the thermocline. In Lake Superior, burbot can live at depths below 300 meters. As benthic fish, they tolerate an array of substrate types including mud, sand, rubble, boulder, silt, and gravel for feeding. Adults will construct extensive burrows in the substrate for shelter during the day. As crepuscular fish, burbot are active hunters at night. Burbot populations are adfluvial during the winter months, and they migrate to near-shore reefs and shoals to spawn, preferring spawning grounds of sand or gravel.

Life History

Burbot reach sexual maturity between 4 and 7 years of age. Spawning season typically occurs between December and March, often under ice at extremely low temperatures ranging between 1 and 4° Celsius. Though a relatively short season lasting from two to three weeks, burbot will spawn multiple times, but not every year.

As broadcast spawners, burbot do not have an explicit nesting site, but rather release eggs and sperm into the water column to drift and settle. When spawning, many male burbot will gather around one or two females, forming a spawning ball. Writhing in the open water, males and females will simultaneous release sperm and eggs. Depending on water temperatures, the incubation period of the eggs will last from 30 to 128 days. Fertilized eggs will then drift until they settle into cracks and holes in the substrate.

Depending on body size, female burbot fecundity ranges from 63,000 to 3,477,699 eggs for each batch. Rate of growth, longevity, and age of sexual maturity of burbot are strongly correlated of with water temperature: large, older individuals produce more eggs than small, younger individuals. Eggs are round with a large oil globule, approximately 1 mm in diameter and have a optimal incubation range between 1 and 7° Celsius.

Newly hatched burbot larvae are pelagic, passively drifting in the open water. Habitats about 12° Celsius are known to be intolerable for larval burbot. By night, juveniles are active, taking shelter during the day under rocks and other debris. Growing rapidly in their first year, burbot reach between 11–12 cm in total length by late fall. During the second year of life, burbot on average will grow another 10 cm.

Burbot transition from pelagic habitats to favor benthic environments as they reach adulthood, around 5 years old. Average length of burbot by maturity is approximately 40 cm, with slight sexual dimorphism. Maximum length ranges between 30 and 60 cm, and weigh between 1 and 3 kg.

Diet

At the larval stage, month-old burbot will begin exogenous feeding, consuming food through the mouth and digesting in the intestines. Burbot at the larval stage and into the juvenile stage will feed on invertabrates based on size: Under 1 cm, burbot will eat copepods and cladocerans, and above 1 and 2 cm zooplankton and amphipods. As adults, burbot are primarily piscivores, preying on lamprey, whitefish, grayling, northern pike, suckers, stickleback, trout, and perch. At times, burbot will also eat insects and other macroinvertebrates and have been known to eat frogs, snakes, and birds. Having such a wide diet is also correlated to their tendency to bite lures, making them very easy to catch.

Commercial significance

The burbot is edible. In Finland, its roe is sold as caviar. There is an annual spearfishing tournament held near Roblin, Manitoba, Canada. One of the highlights of the tournament is the fish-fry where the day's catch is served up deep-fried. When cooked, burbot meat tastes very similar to American lobster, leading to the burbot's nickname of "poor man's lobster."

In the 1920s, Minnesota druggist Theodore "Ted" H. Rowell and his father, Joseph Rowell, a commercial fisherman on Lake of the Woods, were using the burbot as feed for the foxes on Joe’s blue-fox farm. They discovered that the burbot contained something that improved the quality of the foxes’ furs; this was confirmed by the fur buyers who commented that these furs were superior to other furs they were seeing. Ted Rowell felt it was something in the burbot, so he extracted some oil and sent it away to be assayed. The result of the assay was that the liver of the burbot has 3 to 4 times the potency in vitamin D, and 4 to 10 times in vitamin A, than “good grades” of cod-liver oil. The vitamin content varies in Burbot from lake to lake, where their diet may have some variation. Additionally, the burbot liver makes up approximately 10% of the fish's total body weight, and its liver is six times the size of those of freshwater fish of comparable size. Ted also found in his research that the oil is lower in viscosity, and more rapidly digested and assimilated than most other fish liver oils. Ted went on to found the Burbot Liver Products Company which later became Rowell Laboratories, Inc., of Baudette, Minnesota, and is today a subsidiary of Solvay Pharmaceuticals of Brussels, Belgium.

Evelyn C. Smith researched and developed of the use of livers from the fresh water burbot for fish oil strong in vitamin A and D. She started during the Great Depression (1929) by offering free burbot oil to the poor and grew to commercializing the oil until the sale of the production equipment to the Rowell Fish Company in 1940.

Angling

Batchawana Bay, Lake Superior

The IGFA recognizes the world record burbot as caught on Lake Diefenbaker, Canada by Sean Konrad on March 27, 2010. The fish weighed 25 pounds 2 ounces (11.4 kg).

The burbot is a tenacious predator, which will sometimes attack other fish that are almost the same size and as such can be a nuisance fish in waters where it is not native. Recent discoveries of burbot in the Green River at Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Utah have concerned wildlife biologists who fear that the burbot could decimate the sport fish population in what is recognized as one of the world's top Brown Trout fisheries, because it often feeds on the eggs of other fish in the lake like Sockeye salmon. The Utah Division of Fish and Game has instituted a "No Release" "Catch and Kill" regulation for the burbot in Utah waterways.

The town of Walker, Minnesota, holds an International Eelpout Festival every winter on Leech Lake. The festival received national attention on March 4, 2011 when a correspondent from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno did a segment on the event.

Conservation status

Burbot populations are difficult to study, due to their deep habitats and reproduction under ice. Although burbot global distribution is widespread and abundant, many populations have been threatened or extirpated. Lacking popularity in commercial fishing, many regions do not even consider management plans. Pollution and habitat change such as river damming appear to be the primary causes for riverine burbot populations, while pollution and the adverse effects of invasive species have the greatest influence on lacustrine populations. Management of burbot is on low priority, being non-existent in some regions.

External links

• "Lota lota". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=164725. 
• Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2006). "Lota lota" in FishBase. April 2006 version.
• Experts to discuss reintroduction of Burbot to UK, Matt Clarke, Practical Fishkeeping magazine
• Lota lota Burbot