A biological synopsis of northern pike (Esox lucius)

"This synopsis reviews biological information on the northern pike in support of a risk assessment evaluating the impacts of its expansion into non-native areas of Canada. The northern pike is a cool-water keystone piscivore whose distribution is circumpolar in North America and Eurasia. In Canada, pike are absent in the Maritimes and most of British Columbia but otherwise widespread. While most populations of northern pike are confined to fresh waters in lakes and rivers, the species can tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions and is relatively easy to introduce outside of its native range. Desirability as a sport fish is the main reason for introduction. Pike usually inhabit shallow weedy areas of lakes and slower moving rivers and are ambush predators. Introduced pike populations can have very significant impacts on native fishes including salmonids through predation."
""This synopsis reviews biological information on the northern pike in support of a risk assessment evaluating the impacts of its expansion into non-native areas of Canada. The northern pike is a cool-water keystone piscivore whose distribution is circumpolar in North America and Eurasia."--Document."@en