Lotidae, Bonaparte, 1835

Lotidae View in CoL

The family Lotidae have earlier been classified as a sub-family under the Gadidae . The family contains only five species in total and one species, the burbot Lota lota (Linnaeus, 1758) , is found in freshwater in Norway. The burbot is mainly distributed in southeast and north in Norway, but with a few populations in mid-Norway (Huitfeldt-Kaas 1918, Hesthagen et al. 2021c).

Only 17 articles were retrieved by the search, indicating that very little research has focussed on the burbot. In many of the articles the burbot was not the primary species of interest, rather if was a minor part of investigations of the food web ( Amundsen et al. 2003a, Sandlund et al. 2013a). Very few studies focussed on the biology of the burbot (Sandlund et al. 1985, Vøllestad 1992). On the other side, some articles have studied the effects of pollution ( Frøslie et al. 1985, Mariussen et al. 2008, Berg et al. 2013). However, these studies are mainly from lake Mjøsa.

In total, the knowledge about the biology of burbot in Norway is very limited. There are no studies available on the reproduction, migration, spawning behaviour or population dynamics of the species. This is unfortunate, as the burbot may be an important part of the benthic ecosystem in many lakes and large rivers. It is also an important predator.