The Féra is a whitefish in the Salmonidae family. There are 24 species and subspecies of whitefish, each with a different name:
- Albeli (lakes Zug, Zurich and Wallenstadt)
- Albick (Lakes Thun and Brienz)
- Bezoule (Bourget and Aiguebelette lakes)
- Blaufelchen (Lake Constance, introduced into Lake Annecy)
- Bondelle (Sub-Jurassic lakes)
- Edelfisch (Lake Lucerne)
- Palée and Féra (Lake Geneva)
- Palchen (Biel)
- Palée (Lake Neuchâtel)
Source : Diving passion
But our Féra du Léman is no longer the Féra of yesteryear.
This whitefish is the result of various reintroductions to replace the native whitefish known as Gravenches for the smallest species and Féra for the largest.
The Féra had a delicate flesh that was much appreciated, but was difficult to keep in reserve for a day. In 1896, the population of this species peaked. In a single night, thirty boats brought in almost 3 tonnes of Féra. Unfortunately, the intensive fishing that followed led to a fall in its value. At the markets in Lausanne, because there were no buyers and they could not be preserved, the Féras were thrown in baskets into the sewers.
10 years later, the population collapsed, with fishermen catching only one sixth of the previous quantities. This was due to overfishing, exacerbated by an epizootic (animal epidemic).
Despite a Franco-Swiss agreement set up to protect the Féra, it disappeared in the 1920s. Frying then began using non-native whitefish (born elsewhere than in Lake Geneva) from North America, Russia, Scandinavia and Estonia. But it was the fry and eggs from the Palées, from Lake Neuchâtel, that were the most widely introduced into Lake Geneva.
Today's Féra has morphological and genetic similarities with the one from Neuchâtel.
Shouldn't this Féra be called something else?
Information taken from the book 1000 ans de pêche en Suisse romande.