Arctic char or
Arctic charr (
Salvelinus alpinus) is a cold-water
fish in the family
Salmonidae, native to
alpine lakes and
arctic and
subarctic coastal waters. Its distribution is
circumpolar. It breeds in fresh water, and populations can either be landlocked or
anadromous, migrating to the sea. No other freshwater fish is found as far north; it is, for instance, the only fish species in
Lake Hazen on
Ellesmere Island in the
Canadian Arctic. It is one of the rarest fish species in
Britain, found mainly in deep, cold,
glacial lakes, and is at risk from acidification. In other parts of its range, such as
Scandinavia, it is much more common, and is
fished extensively. In
Siberia, it is known as
golets and it has been introduced in lakes where it sometimes threatens less hardy endemic species, such as the
small-mouth char and the
long-finned char in
Elgygytgyn Lake.