Naylors Ditch, Swallowfield - Fish rescue
A few days ago the Environment Agency rescued around 400 fish from what is little more than a muddy ditch in Swallowfield. It became apparent that a number of fish were trapped in 3 small pools of water in the ditch around 300metres from its confluence with the River Blackwater, with no way of returning and reaching saftey due to the drying out of a culvert. The pools which were less than 15cm deep 2-3 metres long and 1metre wide, were steadly drying out in the hot weather and indeed only 4 days after the rescue had been reduced to little more than wet mud.The fish were caught by hand netting and electrofishing and transferred to a nearby stretch of the River Blackwater. This ditch, which would not normally deserve more than a cursary glance, has demonstrated the value of some of these small watercourses in providing a nursery site for some of the young fish to be found in the catchment. The catch also shows the range of species present, and perhaps gives a clue as to the relative abundance, at least for some of the species.
It may be worth keeping an eye on any small streams and ditches in your locality.
Aproximate numbers and sizes of the fish moved were:-
-
Chub
>100
30-200mm
Dace
10
100-150mm
Minnows
>200
20-50mm
Roach
5
70-80mm
Bream
5
50-80mm
Bleak
5
80-100mm
Tench
1
80mm
Gudgeon
20
60-100mm
Stone Loach
10
60-100mm
Perch
3
50-90mm
Sticklebacks
10
20-30mm