Arctic Char

Arctic Char from The Natural History of British Fishes (1802) by Edward Donovan. Original from the New York Public Library.

Image from RawPixel.

The Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) is a species of salmon found in alpine lakes and Arctic and subarctic coastal waters.

The English name ‘char’ is thought to derive from Old Irish ceara/cera meaning “blood red”, which is a reference to the pink-red underside of the fish.

Maybe the word ceara/cera is related to cerise, which is of course a red colour and derives from the same word that in French means cherry. Or maybe not.

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