Silver trout
Encyclopedia
The name "silver trout" is also sometimes used for rainbow trout
Rainbow trout
The rainbow trout is a species of salmonid native to tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead is a sea run rainbow trout usually returning to freshwater to spawn after 2 to 3 years at sea. In other words, rainbow trout and steelhead trout are the same species....

.

The silver trout (Salvelinus agassizi) is an extinct trout species last seen in Dublin Pond
Dublin Pond
Dublin Pond or Dublin Lake is a water body located in Cheshire County in southwestern New Hampshire, United States, in the town of Dublin. The pond lies at an elevation of 1,480 feet above sea level, near the height of land between the Connecticut River/Long Island Sound watershed to the west...

, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

, in 1930, in a catch of six. The only properly confirmed occurrence of the fish was also in Dublin Pond.

The silver trout was often a foot long and was said to actually be olive green in colour. It was an exceedingly rare fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

, having become trapped (by changed drainage systems) in three New Hampshire lakes (Dublin
Dublin, New Hampshire
Dublin is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,597 at the 2010 census. It is home to both the Dublin School and Yankee Magazine.-History:...

 Pond, Sunapee Lake
Lake Sunapee
Lake Sunapee is located within Sullivan County and Merrimack County in western New Hampshire, the United States. It is the fifth-largest lake located entirely in New Hampshire....

, and Christine Lake
Christine Lake (New Hampshire)
Christine Lake is a water body located in Coos County in northern New Hampshire, United States, in the town of Stark. The lake lies southeast of the Percy Peaks and north of the Upper Ammonoosuc River. Water from Christine Lake flows via the Upper Ammonoosuc to the Connecticut River at Groveton...

 in Stark
Stark, New Hampshire
Stark is a town in Coos County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 556 at the 2010 census. It has a famous covered bridge. The town includes the villages of Percy and Crystal as well as the village of Stark, located on the Upper Ammonoosuc River. New Hampshire Route 110 runs through...

) that were left as isolated pockets by a retreating glacial
Glacier
A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

 front approximately 8,000 years before, following the end of the last Ice Age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...

. In the deep waters of these lakes, cut off from other species, the silver trout had no natural predators.

However, by the late 19th century, as each area developed its own steady summer tourism, recreational fishermen
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

 who sought to increase their catches began to introduce new fish species into these lakes, and these eventually overwhelmed the native silver trout. Yellow perch
Yellow perch
The yellow perch is a species of perch found in the United States and Canada, where it is often referred to by the shortform perch. Yellow perch look similar to the European perch, but are paler and more yellowish, with less red in the fins. They have six to eight dark, vertical bars on their sides...

, which eat trout eggs
Roe
Roe or hard roe is the fully ripe internal egg masses in the ovaries, or the released external egg masses of fish and certain marine animals, such as shrimp, scallop and sea urchins...

, were particularly devastating. Very small numbers of silver trout may have survived into the 1950s and 1960s, but they are extinct today.
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