Lake Pavin is a young lake with clear, little mineralized, and well-oxygenated waters in its upper stratum. It is home to large trouts and salmonids. Arctic chars (salvelinus alpinus), placed at the head of wild fish by numerous gourmets, have also occupied its depths for a century. The only representative of the genus salvelinus native to Europe, the arctic char has moved up the rivers of Europe and colonized the large lakes at thawing during the last glaciation, from the vast Lake Ancylus on the Baltic Sea. It was introduced into Lake Pavin at the end of the 19th century from the source of Lake Geneva.