Excerpt from Ontario Out of Doors Magazine, January 2004
Scientists determine species are THE SAME
European Pikeperch/Zander & North American Walleye/Pickerel to be renamed
MORE Ontario gamefish have been renamed, the result of scientists from across North America getting together to produce a sixth edition of the book Common and Scientific Names of Fishes from the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Chinook salmon is now spelled with a capital C, since the word is also a proper noun for a member of a Pacific Coast aboriginal people.
NAMES TO BE CHANGED
The scientific names of Walleye and Sauger change from Stizostedion vitreum and Stizostedion canadense to Sander vitreus and Sander canadensis respectively.
This reflects the fact that European Zander (Sander lucioperca), Walleye and Sauger are so closely related that they are considered to be of the same genus.
Rules governing taxonomy give priority to the first species documented.
Five species belong to this genus worldwide. The others are the Volga pike perch, Sander volgensis, which is found in eastern Europe; and the estuarine perch, Sander marinus, which lives in brackish estuaries of eastern Europe and western Asia.
- Lonnie King
