Carp, bream, and roach were among the breeds of fish rescued.
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The Canal and River Trust (CRT) have removed over eight tonnes of fish and large amounts of rubbish during the drainage of the Brent Reservoir, part of essential maintenance that only takes place every twenty years.
The CRT is the UK’s largest waterways charity. It handles the upkeep of canals and rivers across the country. This is the first time that it has carried out the drainage of Brent Reservoir.
The reservoir must be drained around once in a generation to carry out repairs to the sluice mechanisms and reservoir works. It has also exposed issues with the reservoir that can be tackled now that most of the water is gone. An important one is the large amount of litter dumped into the reservoir over its 190-year lifetime.
Alex Paterson, the CRT’s Communications & Campaigns Manager, highlighted this, saying, “We’ve found all sorts of things like parking ticket machines, we’ve found machetes, world war two ammunition, safes, electric bikes, all sorts of things which we’re really pleased to have been able to remove.”
“It’s really that race against time in this period where the water isn’t in the reservoir to get as much of that rubbish out and to do what we can to make environmental improvements which will last a generation.”
Finds included parking ticket machines, machetes, and electric bikes. CREDIT: LILAH PARSONS/CITY NEWS
Saving wildlife
It is not only the removal of litter that has slowed the drainage process.
Originally expected to take a week, the initiative has gone on for months because of the presence of an unexpectedly large population of fish. Over ten thousand have been removed from the reservoir, as they would not survive the drainage.
Max Denning of MEM Fisheries is one of the workers carrying this out.
He said: “If we weren’t here you would have tonnes and tonnes of dead fish and it would not be fair on the environment… it would be an ecological disaster… We’re here at Brent Reservoir netting and rescuing the fish. And we’re here to ensure all the fish are taken out safely and there are no fatalities before they get moved on safely.”
The fish are carried in a bag to an oxygenated tank and transported to other waterways. CREDIT: LILAH PARSONS
The removal of the fish benefits not only the Brent reservoir but other waterways across the country too. Invasive species can be extracted and moved, and others will be moved to waterways where there have been “fishkills”.
This is when the oxygen levels in the water fall too low for the fish to survive. Droughts, algal blooms, and temperature changes can cause this. The arrival of new fish can revitalise the ecosystems of these canals and rivers.
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HeadlineFish rescued and litter removed from Brent Reservoir amid once-in-a-generation drainage
Short HeadlineFish and litter removed from drained Brent Reservoir
StandfirstThe Canal and River Trust has extracted over 10,000 fish from the reservoir.
The Canal and River Trust (CRT) have removed over eight tonnes of fish and large amounts of rubbish during the drainage of the Brent Reservoir, part of essential maintenance that only takes place every twenty years.
The CRT is the UK’s largest waterways charity. It handles the upkeep of canals and rivers across the country. This is the first time that it has carried out the drainage of Brent Reservoir.
The reservoir must be drained around once in a generation to carry out repairs to the sluice mechanisms and reservoir works. It has also exposed issues with the reservoir that can be tackled now that most of the water is gone. An important one is the large amount of litter dumped into the reservoir over its 190-year lifetime.
Alex Paterson, the CRT’s Communications & Campaigns Manager, highlighted this, saying, “We’ve found all sorts of things like parking ticket machines, we’ve found machetes, world war two ammunition, safes, electric bikes, all sorts of things which we’re really pleased to have been able to remove.”
“It’s really that race against time in this period where the water isn’t in the reservoir to get as much of that rubbish out and to do what we can to make environmental improvements which will last a generation.”
Finds included parking ticket machines, machetes, and electric bikes. CREDIT: LILAH PARSONS/CITY NEWS
Saving wildlife
It is not only the removal of litter that has slowed the drainage process.
Originally expected to take a week, the initiative has gone on for months because of the presence of an unexpectedly large population of fish. Over ten thousand have been removed from the reservoir, as they would not survive the drainage.
Max Denning of MEM Fisheries is one of the workers carrying this out.
He said: “If we weren’t here you would have tonnes and tonnes of dead fish and it would not be fair on the environment… it would be an ecological disaster… We’re here at Brent Reservoir netting and rescuing the fish. And we’re here to ensure all the fish are taken out safely and there are no fatalities before they get moved on safely.”
The fish are carried in a bag to an oxygenated tank and transported to other waterways. CREDIT: LILAH PARSONS
The removal of the fish benefits not only the Brent reservoir but other waterways across the country too. Invasive species can be extracted and moved, and others will be moved to waterways where there have been “fishkills”.
This is when the oxygen levels in the water fall too low for the fish to survive. Droughts, algal blooms, and temperature changes can cause this. The arrival of new fish can revitalise the ecosystems of these canals and rivers.
