Brown trout

Scientific: Salmo trutta. English: Brown trout, sea trout. Icelandic: Urriði, sjóbirtingur. For more languages see the Marine Animal Dictionary.

Biology and distribution

The brown trout is somewhat intermediate between salmon and Arctic char in habits and biology. It is more related to salmon, but classified as trout, as it is both found as anadromous and purely freshwater stocks. Brown trout can reach more than 100 cm in length, but common size is 35 – 50 cm for the freshwaters stocks. The anadromous stocks, however, are about 10 cm longer.

Originally brown trout was only found in Europe and the northeast Atlantic, from the Bay of Biscay to the White Sea, but now it has been transplanted to rivers and lakes all over the world. It occurs all over Iceland.

The searun variety spend up to four months in the sea during summer but return to freshwater during autumn. This is longer than the Arctic char but much shorter than the salmon. Similar to salmon and different from arctic char, this only applies to mature fish as juveniles remain exclusively in fresh water.

Catch and fishing gear

The brown trout is a very popular sport fish in Iceland. It is fished all around Iceland, but is most abundant in the southern part. Reported catches are around 45 tonnes.

Aquaculture

Today, brown trout is farmed for enhancement programmes in rivers and lakes. There are currently no companies in Iceland that cultivate brown trout to market size. Maximum slaughtered volume was about 40 tonnes in 1989.

Processing and markets

Wild brown trout is mostly consumed by the fishers or locally. It is either eaten fresh or smoked.

References and further information

References: (Jónsson & Pálsson, 2006).

For full citation and further information on the main species in general see this page

Hreiðar Þór Valtýsson, University of Akureyri