Carp Deaths??

ECHO has been getting a lot of reports of deaths of large carp at fisheries across the country. Some of these are due to KHV, which is being monitored now. Some are due to fish still holding spawn they did not shed during the spring and summer. Most are unexplained.

A single common thread through many of the waters affected is the colour of the water, a tea colour, just like peat water running off the moors.

This colour may be caused by a diatom, or an algal bloom, or by the stirring of the bottom strata during the recent floods, but not all the waters reporting kills have been flooded.

The pattern of deaths on many waters follows the pattern one would associate with a viral infection, although in most reports the fish are showing no signs of disease, parasite loading or any damage to gills.

SAA and ECHO are very concerned about this situation but much of what we are being told is hearsay.

We need to build a database of events and circumstances to even be able to project the size of the problem and to develop ideas of what may be the cause.

We need the nation’s anglers to report facts, seen with their own eyes.

If you have any information regarding carp deaths in your waters please email secretary@saauk.org, heading it Carp Deaths, with the following information; name of water, location, number of deaths, size and species of fish affected, colour of water, if the water was subject to flooding in the recent summer rains, the timescale over which the deaths occurred, what action the Environment Agency has taken to determine the cause, any explanation they might have given.

It may be that we can do nothing to prevent further deaths, but this information may allow those of us who are working on the problem to gain a better understanding of the cause and give our scientists some directions in which to conduct further research.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

any link to the split lake deaths mike?

Coulds be Frothy, that is what we are trying to establsh - links, causes, possible cures.

It looks increasingly like agricultural runoff from the recent heavy rains and another algae bloom, just like we would normally see in spring, but with different algae and the carp stressed through not shedding all their spawn.

What we need are details of these fish kills so that we can build the national picture up.

Mike

hi,i aint fished the carp lake at longleat for many many years but that at times did go a tea colour during the summer and the fishing quickly turned shit,also the bristol avon through bradford on avon and limply stoke used to go tea coloured in the summer sometimes for no apparent reason and the fishing as a result turned off too,i dont know if this is any use to you.

we have lost quite a few fish in local pools (midlands). No specific reason and one water was loosing about ten fish per day, only seemd to be affecting small fish about 5-6lbs and in the last couple of weeks they havent lost any. There was an algae bloom on the lake which might have had some affect, but on teh other two waters they were just dying for no reason.

Weird thing is it has stopped now, so god knows what is was

steveo

Thanks for the info on Longleat and the Avon. Historical stuff like that might prove useful in research previous events.

Foxy

Do you know idf the pools were subject to any flooding?

we have had a lot of rain (as everyone has) over the last couple of months. There is a farmers field (sillage / hay whatever you want to call it) adjacent to the field and we always get a lot of run off itno the water, but this happens on a regular basis so i dont think its that. The pool never flodds as it has a overflow valve at one end of teh lake so we just open and close it accordingly

"It looks increasingly like agricultural runoff from the recent heavy rains and another algae bloom, just like we would normally see in spring, but with different algae and the carp stressed through not shedding all their spawn"

I agree with you mike, think the combination of them still being a bit spawnd up, the algae bloom (which was quite heavy) may have been the cause

michael,..im not if the lakes were subject to floodin,they are in the middle of knowhere and what appears to be a stream feeds the lakes,i donot know where the source of the stream is...all the best steve