(sometimes called the freshwater cod fish or cusk)
For inquiries contact Alan Richmond, Biology Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
This is the only freshwater member of the Cod fish family. This is a northern, cold water species that is circumpolar in distribution. This fish was probably never very common in Massachusetts. Little is known about the status of this species in Massachusetts other than it is listed and a species of special concern. There are only three accounts of burbots from the Connecticut River in Massachusetts. Naturalists identified this species from the Connecticut River in the early 1800's. In 1987, an ichthyologist found two larval fishes in a flooded backwater of the Connecticut River in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.
Burbots like cold water. They are relatively abundant in northern New England and the specimens found in Massachusetts may well have come from upstream. It is unlikely that the Longmeadow specimens originated elsewhere however. This would mean that at least two eggs would have had to travel 100 plus miles in a river at flood stage and by chance both end up in the same pool in Longmeadow. It is more unlikely that both a male and female Lota were displaced downstream and both ended up in a small backwater on the Connecticut border. It seems more plausible that a small relictual population of burbots exists in the Connecticut River. It is possible that a populations exists in a deep hole in the Connecticut River or perhaps in the riffle below the Enfield dam.
Adults reach a length of 343-837mm (13-33 in) total length. Adults over 500mm (19 in) are exclusively fish eaters (piscivores). Juveniles feed on a variety of organisms, invertebrates, small fishes and the like.
Burbots are easily identified. They have two dorsal fins, the anterior one being fairly short while the posterior dorsal fin extends from about mid-body all the way to the base of the tail. Burbots have one ventral fin that extends from the mid-belly region to the base of the tail. Like many fishes in the cod family, burbots have a single well developed chin barbel.
I would be most interested in any sightings of this animal from anywhere in the Connecticut River.
If you have any information, please contact:
Alan Richmond
Biology Department
Morrill Science Center
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-5810
email: alanr@bio.umass.edu
