Salmo caspius Kessler, 1877

Jouladeh-Roudbar, Arash, Ghanavi, Hamid Reza & Doadrio, Ignacio, 2020, Fig. 4 in Fig. 4 in Fig. 3 in Fig. 21. Sesarmops mora n in Paralbunea dayriti, Zoological Studies 59 (21), pp. 1-303 : 220-221

Salmo caspius Kessler, 1877 – Native ( Fig. 410)

Salmo caspius Kessler [K. F.] 1877: 62; Type locality: Kura River near Bozhii Promysel fishing grounds, Azerbaijan. Syntypes: (3) not at ZIN.

Common name: Pr: Mahi azad, En: Caspian trout.

Diagnosis: The dark-spotted back, light halos around some of the dark-colored flank spots, caudal fin not or only weakly spotted, teeth on the vomer shaft, and only 9–15 total anal fin rays are distinctive.

Meristic characters: D: III–V 7–12, A: III–V 6–12, P: 10–14, V: 8–10, LL: 108–134 GR: 17–20, TV: 59–61.

Distribution: Caspian Sea basin ( Fig. 411). Found in the Caspian Sea and enters Iranian rivers to spawn as well as being resident in Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan provinces.

Taxonomy: Berg (1949) placed caspius in Salmo trutta as subspecies but Fricke et al. (2007) regard as full species.

Conservation: IUCN: Not Evaluated, PC: Critically Endangered A2cde.

It is difficult to distinguish a decline of the wild populations due to the stocking of the species. However, it is suspected that the native wild population has declined by over 80% in the past three generations (estimated at 24 years) as all the wild populations have almost disappeared, apart from the restocked individuals from Iran. Many fish are taken by poachers in traps and nets used to block spawning streams. There are only occasional records from the southern Caspian basin. Overfishing, poaching by traps and nets will soon cause the extinction of natural populations.