LFCC at Fleet Pond Wildlife Day
The LFCC, in collaboration with the Loddon Catchment Partnership, attended the Fleet Pond Wildlife Day on Sunday 3td June, an event run by the Fleet Pond Society and Hart District Council. We shared our stall with the South East Rivers Trust, where the LFCC put on a display of fishes from Fleet Pond which meant we spent a couple of hours on the Saturday electrofishing to stock the aquarium. Of course, Sod’s Law meant we had problems finding small fish for the display but we managed to get enough in the end. Small bream eluded us and the only ones we could find were far too large and had to be returned. We found quite a few pike, lots of dace (they come in from the Gelvert and other feeder streams), very few roach and several perch so had enough to keep the public interested. Fleet Pond has suffered some environmental problems in recent years, notably due to run-off and silt from the nearby army vehicle training area where churned up ground leads to a lot of muddy water getting into the pond.
The display proved popular with visitors, many of whom were quite knowledgeable about the fishes anyway, and some needed a little help in identifying them. We had a couple of signal crayfish on display (yes they get everywhere) which were very popular with children. While we attracted a lot of attention, we did not expect to get new members; this was more about informing people about Fleet Pond. SERT kept people engaged with a demo designed to show how different types of soils can help to retain pollution and run-off. This was a very simple in concept and yet showed the point in a very clear and graphic manor. Hopefully this sent visitors off to think about how they could help to reduce these problems.
