The Maitland Files
A serialised interview with an international char expert.

Q. In our opinion Dr. Arthur Went made a huge contribution to Arctic Charr research and awareness in Ireland. Did you ever have the pleasure of meeting him? (We hear he was quite a character and hope to do a profile of him in the near future.)

A. Yes, I knew Arthur Went well, initially from correspondence and later from joint attendance at scientific meetings. He was a member of the committee which helped me with the first scheme for mapping the distribution of freshwater fish in the British Isles and contributed greatly to that project. Though never one to suffer fools gladly, he was a pleasant man and a good scientist. I have most of his publications in my files and he certainly made a major contribution to fish ecology in Ireland.

Q. Who got here first in you opinion, Arctic Charr or Pollan?

A. This is a question which has always fascinated me and I have no final answer. What I find strange is that, in both Scotland and Ireland, Arctic Charr are much more widespread than the coregonids Powan and Pollan, which have a very restricted distribution in both countries. Yet Coregonus is understood to be a more dominant species than Salvelinus and there is good evidence from Scandinavia that when the former is introduced to charr lakes, the charr may disappear. If this is true, it would imply that, historically, Arctic Charr came first, followed by Coregonus, which must never have been able to reach most of the charr lochs, perhaps because of their poorer swimming powers and the higher land (and loch) levels at this later period.

The End