Arctic Char
The Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus Linnaeus) is present in North America in both the anadromous (seagoing) and the nonanadromous (freshwater resident) forms.
It is distributed throughout the polar regions and is the most northerly distributed of char and its closely related cousin, the Dolly Varden (Salvelinus malma Walbaum). Like all chars, Arctic char have light colored spots on a dark background. The entire body may become golden or orange. Spawning colors are more exaggerated in males than in females. The largest Arctic char in Alaska probably occur in some of Bristol Bay's large lakes, where good fishing can be had from late May through early July when these fish congregate to feed on salmon smolts as they move toward the sea and again in the fall when they move into rivers such as the Agulapak and Agulawok to feed on sockeye eggs.
