Coregonus maraena (Bloch, 1779)

Open encyclopedia reference

Coregonus maraena, referred to in English as the maraene, maraena whitefish, vendace, cisco, lake herring, lake whitefish or the whitefish, is a whitefish of the family Salmonidae that occurs in the Baltic Sea basin – in the sea itself and the inflowing rivers, and in several lakes as landlocked populations. It is found in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia (Štrbské pleso), Russia and Sweden. Up to 2023, it was listed as a vulnerable species by the IUCN, but this is now revised to Least Concern. It is listed as endangered by HELCOM. It is an extremely important fish within the Baltic Sea ecosystem, both for population equilibrium and for the local diets of the surrounding human population. Due to a variety of factors, mostly overfishing, the maraena's population dwindled to near-extinction levels. Thus, rampant repopulation was enacted to preserve this important fish. In the Baltic basin countries, this species has traditionally been known as Coregonus lavaretus (the common whitefish).

Wikipedia contributors, Coregonus maraena; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T19:24:16.008301+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Coregonus maraena (Bloch, 1779)

Name authority

(Bloch, 1779)

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Teleostei

Order

Salmoniformes

Family

Salmonidae

Genus

Coregonus

Extinction status

Not supplied by this source

Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: yes · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. gigaclassActinopterygii
8. superclassActinopteri
9. classTeleostei
10. orderSalmoniformes
11. familySalmonidae Cuvier, 1816
12. subfamilyCoregoninae Bonaparte, 1845
13. genusCoregonus Linnaeus, 1758
14. speciesCoregonus maraena (Bloch, 1779)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Coregonus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 141 records assigned to Salmonidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=712453 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:6B28S. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.