Today (Monday 3 July), the BBC reported there have been unprecedented fish deaths in rivers due to record hot temperatures in June. The piece highlights that the Environment Agency has received more reports of dead fish than the same time last year, and also includes a comment from the Angling Trust who say they normally expect rivers to be affected later in the summer when it's hotter and drier.
While extreme hot temperatures and thunderstorms can be highly dangerous for fish, fish incidents are often the combination of several factors including temperature, water levels or flows, algal blooms, pollution and fish disease.
The Environment Agency recognise the harmful and serious risks that fish face due to prolonged dry weather and continue to respond to incident reports to help mitigate the impacts of recent high temperatures. This includes deploying aeration equipment to restore dissolved oxygen levels in watercourses; providing advice to angling clubs, fisheries, and anglers; and occasionally, as a last resort, relocating fish.
Dr Graeme Storey, Fisheries Manager at the Environment Agency, said:
Environment Agency fisheries teams have been responding round the clock to numerous reports of dead or distressed fish across the country.
While extreme weather including continuous hot temperatures and thunderstorms can be highly dangerous for fish, these incidents aren’t always due to a single cause and it is often the combination of several factors including temperature, water levels or flows, algal blooms, pollution and fish disease.
Responses to such incidents can include reoxygenating water and rescuing fish where river flows are especially low.
We encourage members of the public who see dead fish or fish in distress to contact our incident Hotline on 0800 80 70 60 and alert the fishery owner or angling club where possible.
4 comments
Comment by Sylvia posted on
Has the water in the rivers been tested for sewage, chemicals poisons? Have the rivers been dredged of excess silt as they were in the past. Has the water been tested for aluminium and the other chemicals sprayed down on a daily basis by planes via chemtrails? Where is the report on the ingredients in the water?
Comment by Peter Hunt posted on
We have high water temperatures almost every year albeit not usually during the spawning season. Yes, it is almost certain that in all these incidences there are other factors at play. It is highly likely that there was already poor water quality due to chemicals and sewage pollution causing stress to fish during the spawning season and this was the prime cause for fish mortality and that the high water temperatures were the last straw for these already stressed fish.
All the comments published here and on media channels seem to have given high water temperatures as the prime cause of the fish mortality when all along, it was probably poor water quality in the first place.
Have water samples been taken tested for pollutants? I don't suppose we will hear the results anyway.
Comment by Albert West posted on
Dr Graeme Storey, Fisheries Manager at the Environment Agency, said:
Environment Agency fisheries teams have been responding round the clock to numerous reports of dead or distressed fish across the country.
Who has been working through the Night?
Comment by William Hughes-Games posted on
And it is going to get worse. You need a sufficient riparian zone on the banks of all rivers to mitigate temperature extremes and beavers in every location they can possibly build a dam. They not only store water in their ponds but in the surrounding ground. (The water table meets the pond at it's surface so they raise the water table). Beaver dams are leaky so this water slowly leaks back into the river. Floods are diminished and low water events are not as extreme. Plant deciduous trees along the river where they are lacking. This gives the beavers material for food and construction and all the Northern Hemisphere trees coppice.