Vendace, one of the most valued fishes of the Polish lakes, is a species exhibiting substantial phenotypic variability. The comparative morphometric studies were carried out on vendace living in 5 West Pomeranian lakes, Komorze, Pile, Moryńskie, Żerdno and Bytyń. The lakes differ much in morphology. We measured 28 morphometric characters. Statistical analyses revealed a range of significant differences in most of the studied traits among the populations of vendace. In order to find the morphometric traits that are characteristic for a particular lake, we performed a canonical analysis, which revealed that the following traits contributed the most to the discriminant functions: caudal fin length, preocular space length, maxillary length, postdorsal length, and – to a lesser extent – head width. Varied lake environments and morphologies may account for the differences in the fish morphometric characters, since different plankton distribution may require different locomotory behaviour, which has been reflected in the morphological differences.

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