Everything about Rainbow Smelt totally explained
Rainbow Smelt (
Osmerus mordax) is an
anadromous species of
fish inhabiting rivers and coastal areas of
North America from
New Jersey to
Labrador on the east coast and from
Vancouver Island to the
Arctic Ocean on the west coast. It has been introduced to the
Great Lakes and from there has made its way to various other inland bodies of water in
Ontario and the
midwestern United States.
The body of the rainbow smelt is slender and cylindrical. It has a silvery pale green back and is iridescent purple, blue, and pink on the sides, with a light underside. When fullgrown, the rainbow smelt is between seven and nine inches long and weighs about three ounces, and ones over 12 inches are known. They eat
zooplankton,
invertebrates and other fish, including small
smelt,
sculpins,
burbot, and
whitefish. They are preyed upon by larger predatory fish such as
coho salmon,
burbot,
trout,
walleye, and
yellow perch.
Rainbow smelt are fished both commercially and for sport. Commercial harvests are down from historic levels; for example around 1850 an annual harvest from the
Charles River alone was around 9 million fish. They are commonly processed into animal feed, but are also eaten by humans. They are a popular winter
game fish and the spring smelt run is a tradition in many parts of their distribution. Since being introduced to the Great Lakes, rainbow smelt have been considered an
invasive species and though they provide food for many native species of larger game fish, they also prey upon the young of these and other fish. They have been found to impact populations of
lake herring,
yellow perch,
whitefish,
bloaters,
alewives,
slimy sculpin,
walleye, and
lake trout.
In their anadromonous territories, they spend the summers along the coast, normally in waters no more than 20 feet deep and no more than a mile from shore. They overwinter under the ice in estuaries, producing an anti-freeze protein containing
glycerol. In the spring, they spawn at night in small streams, often ones that go dry in the summer. Landlocked populations were historically known in Maine, and it was from one of these that they were introduced to one of the lakes in Michigan known as
Crystal Lake, and then spread to the Great Lakes.
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