Three fish on the ministry's list

On the list of traditional products of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the category of fishery products from the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, there are three entries connected with fresh water. According to the gov.pl website, smoked vendace from the Drawsko Lakeland was added to the list on 2 July 2013, Miedwie whitefish (also spelled “miedwiańska”) on 5 September 2013, and smoked fish from Miedwie on 7 October 2014. The same list also includes Szczecin-style herring, but that is a sea fish, so it does not belong in this text.

What vendace and whitefish have in common is biological: both are salmonid fish of the genus Coregonus which, according to Wikipedia, live in cool, deep, clean lakes and are sensitive to the amount of oxygen in the water. That is why they appear precisely where lakes are deep: on Lake Drawsko and Lake Miedwie.

Vendace from Lake Drawsko

According to Wikipedia the European vendace usually reaches about 30 cm, at most 45 cm, and its weight does not exceed about a kilogram. It lives in shoals: by day it keeps to a depth of 20-30 m, at dusk it feeds nearer the surface, and its food is plankton. Spawning lasts from November to December. Wikipedia also gives a minimum size of 18 cm and a closed season from 15 October to 31 December, which should be checked against the current fishery rules, because regulations change.

According to Wikipedia, Lake Drawsko has an area of 1781.5 ha and a maximum depth of 82.2 m (data from a 1991 publication); the town office in Czaplinek gives slightly different figures, 1871 ha and 83 m.

The fish in Lake Drawsko have a long history recorded in documents. A description of the lake from 1480 has survived, in which it is called rich in fish. A description from 1564-1565, drawn up for the Drahim starosty, lists according to Wikipedia catfish, sułwice (Wikipedia links this name with vendace), mrzewki, bream and eels, and also notes that there were no carp in the lake. In summer the lake was leased by fishermen, who paid the castle in Drahim, today Stare Drawsko, two quarters of oats each; in the year recorded there were 36 of them.

Today vendace is smoked in Stare Drawsko itself. The dzieje.pl website describes a local business with a smokehouse and a fish restaurant, which joined the Culinary Heritage Network of West Pomerania. Its owner called smoked vendace the company's flagship product and said it is a traditional fish of these lands. The offer also includes eels, trout and sea trout, so not only fish from the depths of Lake Drawsko.

Whitefish from Lake Miedwie

Lake Miedwie is shallower than Lake Drawsko but much larger: according to Wikipedia it has an area of 3527 ha, a maximum depth of 43.8 m and a mean depth of 19.3 m. The lake is home to the Miedwie whitefish, which Wikipedia describes as an autochthonous species, alongside vendace, pike, perch, eel, zander and bream.

According to Wikipedia the common whitefish usually inhabits cool, deep and extensive waters, and tolerates pollution and oxygen fluctuations poorly. The minimum size is 35 cm, and the closed season is 15 October - 31 December. Spawning most often takes place from September to December.

Lake Miedwie also has a scientific side. In the late 1940s relict organisms were found here, among them a variety of the common whitefish, Coregonus lavaretus maraena; Wikipedia mentions this, citing a work by Józef Kaj from 1948.

According to Wikipedia, near Żelewo on Lake Miedwie there is an intake of drinking water for Szczecin. National Geographic Traveler magazine links Lake Miedwie with the Miedwie whitefish and with smoked fish from the lake.

Trout from the ponds in Zielenica

National Geographic Traveler magazine describes a fish farm in Zielenica, commonly called the Trout Land. According to this description it lies in a Natura 2000 area, among meadows, forests and glacial moraines, and the fish are raised in earth ponds overgrown with reeds and bulrushes. The author states that every fish has an organic certificate, and that the farm's trout go to the kitchens of restaurants and hotels across Poland. The products also include trout caviar and sturgeon.

This is already a different fish from vendace and whitefish: according to this description the trout comes from pond farming, not from catching in a large lake.