Dead fish found floating in water near Fiddler's Ferry for a second time in a month

2:16pm Monday 3rd September 2012 in News

Dead fish found floating in canal again Dead fish found floating in canal again

MORE dead fish have been found floating near Fiddler's Ferry just weeks after the last environmental disaster in the stretch of water.

On August 16, the Warrington Guardian reported walkers had found hundreds of fish including pike, eels, roach and carp at the top of the water gasping for air before they all died.

A lack of oxygen was blamed for the deaths at the time but angry residents have now called for the Council and Environment Agency to act fast to prevent further losses.

Reader Joseph Holman said: "These fish range from very small young fish to very large pike and carp weighing on average 2 to 7 lb in weight and, in terms of angling, a good catch.

"The council said it was an oxygen depleting algae, if this is so why are eels dead on the surface when they can cross land to other water and breathe air from the surface.

"I think this issue is a local disaster and has probably killed all fish stock on this area of the canal."

A council spokesman said: "We are aware that this issue has returned and the council’s environmental protection officers are liaising with park rangers and the Environment Agency to monitor the situation."

Comments(9)

moleogod says...
5:05pm Mon 3 Sep 12

what to investigate i will give you the answer. lgae doesn't harm fish directly. The only danger is that if a very heavy growth of algae dies off suddenly, the fish can die from the resultant water pollution. It can have knock on affects for miles. clean the fecking waterways once in a while

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Trevbert says...
5:53pm Mon 3 Sep 12

i have never ever seen an eel climb out of the canal, ring a taxi for his mates to another stretch of water...... this reader has his head in the clouds me thinks........ all the waterways in warrington and surrounding areas have been affected by a 'ploom' of algae this year -noticed by many ppl.

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bill_paddington says...
10:17pm Mon 3 Sep 12

It could be algae but without any official tests nobody can really say for sure. Algae blooms are triggered by long periods of hot sunny weather which we haven’t really had this year or an excess of nutrients (fertiliser) possible running off farms fields directly into the water. Either way, algae blooms normally turn water into something resembling pea soup but as there’s been no mention of this, we need to look at other possible causes.
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Canals have to get their water from somewhere and someone suggested that that section of the canal is fed directly with waste water from Fiddlers Ferry power station. I don’t know if this is true but think of it, if a large amount of boiled (deoxygenated) water were to be released into the canal then it would have exactly the same deoxygenating affect as an algae bloom but without the tell tail green colour.
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I’m sure there are going to be a whole raft of rules and regulations aimed at preventing pollution but I’m wondering if the rules extend to oxygen levels? The water returned to the canal is probably a lot cleaner that it originally was but if it’s oxygen levels have been completely depleted then the water may just as well be toxic as far as the fish are concerned.

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WAFiver says...
9:36am Tue 4 Sep 12

WBC do not care, this part of the canal is in the wrong area to matter to them...

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WAFiver says...
9:47am Tue 4 Sep 12

If that image was taken where I think it was, then the canal water level is about 6" below normal. Why, when the level was increased a few years ago, supposedly to prevent this happening by inducing a current flow into the canal?
Neglect and poor management by WBC (who were pretty much gifted this waterway after it's clearance in the late 1970's/early 80's) has lead to this historic waterway and public amenity becoming choked by debris and weed, leading to the inevitable.
Years ago when the banks became eroded (lack of maintenance again) WBC erected "temporary" fencing and turned parts of the canal into a no-go area. The fences are still there, no-one can maintain the waterway if they cannot access it, and WBC seem happy to let neglect take over, no doubt with an eye on the cheapest long term solution - to fill it in whilst claiming that it is for the public good. Sound familiar? They've done it elsewhere in Warrington.

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the dr who says...
4:17pm Tue 4 Sep 12

could just be dead fish from before in August they could have been floating behind the rushes.

why do people think WBC are looking after canals/ i dont think they do, its a british waterways or enviroment issue

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mahoney57 says...
4:51pm Tue 4 Sep 12

some small tribes in the amazon cover a small part of a river with leaves then batter the water with sticks and the fish come to the surface. i'm not an expert but could this be the very heavy rain thats making the fish unable to breathe ....

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Cheap Mower says...
10:39pm Tue 4 Sep 12

Just go to the sea and get more fish, apparently theirs plenty there

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Trevbert says...
7:05pm Wed 5 Sep 12

that would be saltwater fish as these would be freshwater fish although the 'fresh' part is debatable - what you have to understand is that the rights for most of Warrington's waterways, especially for the fishing are owned by private associations/clubs there are a seldom few that WBC controls, therefore its not they're issue to fix it

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