Introduction

The Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus (Linnaeus, 1758) is one of the most widely researched fish species in the world (Klemetsen, this volume), with much of this long and detailed study being driven ultimately by the cultural importance of this highly edible salmonid for the many human communities with which it shares extensive circumpolar northern habitats. These communities include some in the UK, where the Arctic charr is relatively widespread in Scotland but extremely restricted in distribution in England, Northern Ireland and Wales. In England, all native populations are restricted to the Lake District where they persist in just eight lakes including Windermere (Maitland et al., 2007; Ferguson et al., in press). Given this relatively limited national distribution and a range of environmental threats facing the species, the Arctic charr is listed as a UK Biodiversity Action Plan Priority Species which affords its populations some degree of protection from direct and indirect impacts. Nevertheless, the Arctic charr is also fished recreationally with a low intensity in a small number of UK water bodies (Winfield, 2016).

The lake of Windermere in the Lake District National Park of north-west England (Fig. 1) provides a range of ecosystem services to approximately 17,500 individuals resident in its local communities and to many of the approximately 16 M national and international tourists that visit this National Park each year (Clarke & Anteric, 2014). Nevertheless, like many temperate lakes around the world, Windermere also faces significant pressures from eutrophication, climate change, sedimentation, and species introductions (Maberly & Elliott, 2012). Harnessing such cultural importance to deliver improved environmental management was recently a major driving philosophy behind Windermere Reflections, a GBP1.7 M Landscape Partnership Scheme funded by the UK Heritage Lottery Fund running from 2010 to 2014. This ambitious project sought to conserve and enhance the Windermere catchment by both direct, practical, short-term interventions, and by promoting longer-term attitudinal and behavioural changes in residents, businesses and visitors, encouraging engagement and a sense of responsibility through interpretation, education and training (Clarke & Anteric, 2014). The Arctic charr played an important role throughout this innovative project by offering an excellent and highly relatable example of the ways in which environmental threats can impact lake ecosystems. Consequently, ‘Albert the Arctic charr’ played a visible role in promotional literature and other activities used during the lifetime of Windermere Reflections that still persists in the form of two cameo appearances illustrating the effects of eutrophication and sedimentation within the entertaining and educational ‘Windermere Song’ (www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_VAMHJjQJU, accessed 11 June 2018).

Fig. 1
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The north basin of Windermere, a large multi-use lake within the Lake District UNESCO World Heritage Site which provides a range of ecosystem services to local communities and visiting national and international tourists. Photograph copyright Ian J. Winfield

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From a global perspective, the fundamental and applied scientific literature on members of the Salvelinus genus is immense in terms of both historical duration and volume as considered by Klemetsen (this volume). However, specific considerations of the interactions of such fishes with human societies are remarkably rare. It is now over 30 years since Johnson (1984) provided a novel philosophical perspective on such interactions, but the vast majority of subsequent Salvelinus studies have remained firmly focussed on either fundamental biology and ecology or fisheries management. The persistence of this approach is despite an increasing need for scientists to communicate their findings to wider society and to demonstrate their tangible benefits (Winfield, 2010; Kuehne & Olden, 2015). In contrast, many of the recent activities at Windermere described above have embraced a more society-orientated approach and here we present an overview of the cultural importance of the Arctic charr populations of this iconic lake and the ways in which they have recently contributed to its management and international recognition. Before these wider issues are covered; however, it is appropriate first to review briefly the considerable scientific studies of the Arctic charr populations of this lake.

Scientific studies

Windermere has been subjected to over 75 years of continuous scientific study, with much of the ecosystem aspects of this work up to 2012 being described by Maberly & Elliott (2012). In terms of the lake’s fish populations, work on Arctic charr by Winifred E. Frost undertaken from the 1950s to the 1980s has been widely and repeatedly recognised as ground breaking by authors from around the world (e.g. Klemetsen, 2010). The present review purposefully does not cover all of Frost’s work because it has already been reviewed in detail by Baroudy (1995). However, it is appropriate to emphasise here that Frost’s work on Arctic charr spawning grounds, spring- and autumn-spawning biology, and the existence of races or sub-populations as exemplified by Frost (1965) has both advanced fundamental biological understanding and simultaneously informed local conservation management of this iconic species.

Since Frost’s prolific studies, research has continued on the fundamental biology and ecology of Arctic charr in Windermere, exemplified by Mills (1989), Mills & Hurley (1990), and Elliott & Baroudy (1995). However, partly in response to the local cultural importance of Arctic charr, numerous more applied studies have also been undertaken in response to the observed eutrophication of Windermere, which has been evident in both of its north and south basins but more marked in the latter. Le Cren et al. (1972) reported an early examination of the effects of exploitation and eutrophication on the salmonid community of the lake, while Mills et al. (1990) developed this theme with specific reference to its Arctic charr populations. Subsequently, Jones et al. (2008) used detailed long-term dissolved oxygen and hydroacoustic survey data to examine eutrophication impacts on habitat availability for Arctic charr, while Winfield et al. (2008) expanded their treatment of environmental threats to this species to include climate change and fish species introductions. More recently, Winfield et al. (2015) returned to one of the original topics of Frost (1965) and used a novel hydroacoustics system to quantify and assess the condition of Arctic charr spawning grounds in the lake’s two basins.

Finally, in terms of advances in applied science that have been made from research at Windermere, an exhaustive and semi-popular account of the restoration of Windermere provided by Pickering (2001) included specific sections on Arctic charr in the initial description of the lake’s ecology and within chapters on historical deterioration of water quality and its restoration. Such incidences attest to both this species’ value as an indicator species and to its local cultural importance.

Fisheries

The island nature of the UK has given this geographical area a long history of commercial marine fisheries. In contrast, its abundant fresh waters support very few commercial fisheries, although they do provide extensive recreational opportunities (Winfield, 2016). Windermere is a notable exception to this scant history of freshwater commercial fisheries, possibly as a result of the combination of this lake’s large size and its once relative geographical isolation from major sea fishing ports.

Kipling (1973) described 113 commercial netting sites used historically on Windermere, but the lake’s commercial fisheries were most extensively documented by Kipling (1972). The latter noted that in addition to Arctic charr, fisheries also existed for brown trout Salmo trutta Linnaeus, 1758, European eel Anguilla Anguilla (Linnaeus, 1758), perch Perca fluviatilis Linnaeus, 1758, pike Esox lucius Linnaeus, 1758 and migratory Atlantic salmon Salmo salar Linnaeus, 1758. The first written mention of the fisheries of Windermere was in a court case of 1223 between William de Lancaster 4th Baron of Kendal and the Abbot of Furness as reported in Curia Regis Rolls (1955). Historically, the main fishing technique for Arctic charr was seine nets operating within commercial fisheries. Apparently, little or no historical recreational fishing targeted Arctic charr on Windermere, although the famous angler Izaak Walton wondered about the species’ sporting potential in his classic recreational fishing book The Compleat Angler first published in 1653 (Walton & Cotton, 2008). A full historical record of commercial catches is unavailable, but Kipling (1972) indicated that the amount of Arctic charr caught became unsustainable in the middle of the nineteenth century, with temporarily disastrous results. This precipitous decline came at a time when trade in this species was flourishing and both the local population and the tourist trade were increasing. Restrictions on the most efficient fishing methods were swiftly imposed by the lake’s proprietors. Soon afterwards, and as the result of a Royal Commission addressing concerns over national fisheries issues, Boards of Conservators were established for fishery districts in 1865, and at Windermere the policy from 1880 onwards was to rent all net fisheries with a view to closing them down. Watson (1899) cited Nicholson & Burn (1777), who noted the existence and importance of the Arctic charr fishery on Windermere and even commented that the lake contains three sorts of ‘chars’. Watson (1899) also cited a Mr Berrington’s Report on Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries in 1890, which stated that the recent protective measures for Arctic charr in Windermere had borne excellent results. By 1915, the Board of Conservators responsible for Windermere had amassed complete control over netting activities and the last commercial netting took place in 1921.

As the above commercial netting story was unfolding, in 1840 a Mr Spencer from Manchester first introduced to Windermere a way of fishing for Arctic charr from a row boat using a plumb-line technique involving a small number of artificial lures deployed by a purpose-built rod, or more usually by a pair of rods (Day, 1887). This technique persists today virtually unchanged as the sole means by which Arctic charr are fished in Windermere, where this practice is undertaken by a few tens of anglers as a recreational fishery (Fig. 2). The fishery is now regulated by the Environment Agency with a fishing season running from 15 March to 30 September and a minimum takeable size of 200 mm, with no other restrictions on the catch or effort of this very small-scale fishery (Environment Agency, 2009). Further details of this unusual fishery may be found online (www.fishingmuseum.org.uk, accessed 11 June 2018).

Fig. 2
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A recreational angler fishing for Arctic charr on Windermere using a traditional plumb-line technique. Photograph copyright Henry Iddon

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Variations in catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) recorded by two Windermere Arctic charr anglers over the period 1966 to 1991 were found by Elliott & Baroudy (1992) to agree with corresponding variations in CPUE of non-destructive gill nets operated on a north basin spawning ground over the same or similar periods as far as data availability permitted. Subsequently, Winfield et al. (2008) showed that these agreements persisted from 1990 to 2005 with an angler catch dataset that had been expanded from 2004 onwards to include catches of additional anglers recorded under the Environment Agency’s Windermere Arctic Charr Anglers’ Log Book Scheme, which persists to the present as the best monitoring metric for Arctic charr populations of the lake’s north and south basins (Fig. 3). Unfortunately, this metric also reveals a declining trend of CPUE in both basins, with the decline in the more-eutrophicated south basin being particularly severe.

Fig. 3
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Catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE, expressed as number of fish angler−1 h−1) of the Arctic charr fisheries of the north (closed symbols, solid line) and south (open symbols, broken line) basins from 1966 to 2016. No data are available for the south basin in 2002 and 2003, while data points for 2004 and onwards are presented as means ± 95% confidence limits

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Cultural importance and international recognition

The historical cultural importance of the Arctic charr populations of Windermere has already been alluded to above in their context of historically supporting commercial fisheries for this valued species, i.e. in providing an important provisioning ecosystem service. In addition, mention of this species in Izaac Walton’s original 1653 edition of his classic recreational fishing book The Compleat Angler suggests that the sporting value of Arctic charr may also have been appreciated as long ago as several hundred years (Walton & Cotton, 2008). Similarly, in his account of his extensive travels through Great Britain, the literary writer Daniel Defoe noted that the Arctic charr of Windermere had a reputation not simply as a basic food fish, but as a dainty (or delicacy) that was traded near and far as a gift (Defoe, 1727). Writing somewhat later, Watson (1899) also noted the high regard in which the Arctic charr was held by the local community, which was such that for a short period a small private hatchery was operated for this species on the banks of Windermere and as many as 180,000 fry were introduced to the lake each year.

In more recent decades, the Arctic charr populations of Windermere have enjoyed a consistently high profile in a range of popular or semi-popular books or articles on the lake or its surrounding areas such as those by Palmer (1945) and Frost (1989). Part of this persistent attraction stems from the species’ high culinary value, with a notable recent resurgence in the context of the so-called ‘slow food’ that is produced or prepared following local culinary traditions and usually uses high-quality, locally sourced ingredients. For example, the Arctic charr is featured on the website of ‘Slow Food in the UK’ (www.slowfood.org.uk, accessed 11 June 2018). The species also continues to feature in exhibits of the local Kendal Museum and the Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry in the contexts of natural history (with the species’ renowned morphological plasticity amongst an angler’s catches evident and recognised as long ago as 1914) and fisheries, respectively. In addition, a small exhibition of Arctic charr fishing tackle is planned for the Windermere Jetty Museum of Boats, Steam and Stories (www.windermerejetty.org, accessed 11 June 2018), which will open soon on the lake’s shore (Rachel Roberts, Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry, pers. comm.).

The contemporary cultural importance of the Arctic charr populations of Windermere was also prominent in a recent exploration and documentation of the current condition of the lake in an historical context within the Clear Waters Project conducted by the Freshwater Biological Association (Davy-Bowker, 2015). This volunteer-based oral history project focussed on Windermere with the help of volunteers and research materials provided by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Kendal Oral History Group, University of Cumbria, and Wordsworth Trust. Specifically, 38 interviewees recalled socio-economic, climatic, and ecological changes that they had observed at the lake over recent decades. The project reported on 21 May 2014, with transcripts of its interviews subsequently archived and available on registration at the website of the Ambleside Oral History Archive (www.aohg.org.uk, accessed 11 June 2018). The acknowledged cultural importance of this work was such that a well-attended mobile exhibition then visited a number of venues including the Aquarium of the Lakes, Cumbria County Council, Lakeland Arts Trust, and Lancaster Maritime Museum. Similarly, a range of evening talks and other publicity was disseminated through the Freshwater Biological Association, Lakeland Arts Trust, Newsletters, South Cumbria Rivers Trust, and Windermere Reflections.

In the present context, 19 interviewees (50%) of the Clear Waters Project specifically referred to Arctic charr, or char as the species is frequently also known locally. Moreover, interviewees demonstrated a familiarity with basic features of Arctic charr ecology, such as individuals frequenting deeper areas of the lake and moving deeper when the weather is hot and sunny, together with an appreciation of observable differences between Arctic charr from the lake’s north and south basins. Interviewees were also well aware of the history of the local Arctic charr fishery, including that its high-value product was usually sold locally in butchers rather than fishmongers and that its lucrative potting operations facilitated transport further afield to London and elsewhere. Many interviewees were also well aware of the fishery’s demise from a peak in Victorian times and the relative rarity of contemporary fishing activities for this remarkable species.

In addition to the above demonstrable local cultural importance of the Arctic charr populations of Windermere, these fish recently also received international recognition when the Lake District was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 9 July 2017 (Lake District National Park Partnership, 2016). This listing was made in the category of Cultural Landscape, reflecting the area’s identity as a dramatic farmed landscape, the inspiration that it has given to art, literature and love of place, and its pivotal early role in the nature conservation movement of the UK. The nomination case also made specific reference to the area’s populations of Arctic charr and incidentally also to two other rare fish species, vendace Coregonus albula (Linnaeus, 1758) and European whitefish Coregonus lavaretus (Linnaeus, 1758), known locally as schelly.

This listing of the Lake District as a UNESCO World Heritage Site will undoubtedly elevate the area’s international recognition, potentially boosting tourism and thus delivering benefits to local communities and businesses as a direct result. An associated programme of celebration with the Social Media hashtag #WeAreTheLakes has been developed and contains two components directly related to the Arctic charr populations of Windermere. Firstly, as part of the Lakes Ignite Festival, a large metal sculpture of a group of larger-than-life Arctic charr (Fig. 4) was installed in a high-profile location in the town of Ambleside at the north end of Windermere, which will be seen by many of the approximately 16 M national and international tourists that visit the lake and its surrounding areas each year. Secondly, and again precipitated in large part by the Lake District’s successful bid to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the 12-min film ‘Brass, Three Down’ centred on the Arctic charr fishery of Windermere was made by two of the present authors. This film brings together environmental issues described earlier and also celebrates the role that the Arctic charr has played and continues to play in the cultural life of Windermere. This film premiered at the Kendal Mountain Festival in November 2017, where it attracted both regional and national media interest and has subsequently been shown to a number of local natural history and other groups and is also accessible online (https://vimeo.com/241788130, accessed 11 June 2018). Although taking the fishery as its main theme, this film also considers wider environmental issues and documents an evident shift of Arctic charr from historically providing a purely provisioning ecosystem service to now providing a multi-faceted cultural ecosystem service.

Fig. 4
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Sculptors Brian (right) and George (left) Fell with their metal sculpture of Arctic charr installed as part of the Lakes Ignite Festival in a high-profile location in Ambleside at the north end of Windermere. Photograph copyright Steven Barber

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Closing remarks

The Arctic charr populations of Windermere have been researched continuously for approximately 78 years, during which time major contributions have been made to fundamental scientific understanding. At the same time, well-documented changes have been observed in Arctic charr habitat and population abundance in response to a range of pressures including eutrophication, climate change, and species introductions. All these pressures are currently being addressed through management informed by the improved scientific understanding. Although a poorly managed commercial fishery historically had a significant adverse impact on the Arctic charr populations, this was eventually and far-sightedly closed and fishing activities persist today only as a negligible-impact recreational activity.

The cultural importance of the Arctic charr populations of Windermere to its local communities has been evident since the 1200s through frequent and substantial references in the non-scientific literature, museum collections, and oral histories. This local importance is now recognised internationally through a specific mention of Arctic charr in the recent listing of the Lake District as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017. This intervening period of over 800 years has also documented the shift of the Arctic charr populations of Windermere from historically providing a purely provisioning ecosystem service in the form of food for local and distant human populations, to now providing a range of cultural ecosystem services encompassing cultural, spiritual, historical, recreational, and educational dimensions. Given the extensive geographical distribution of Arctic charr and closely related species, the specific case history presented here provided by the Windermere populations is likely to have relevance and application to the management and societal importance of these remarkable fishes in many other locations around the globe.