Rescue my Pond!!!!

My local pond which has an increasing head of fish (especially roach) is suffering in the current hot weather.
It is Brinkburn (or Whessoe) Pond in Darlington.
It is a fairly large pond, and has recently been made into a nature reserve by the local council, but I am growing concerned as the head of fish has suddenly increased and I fear the water may not be oxygenated enough to support them. Especially now that the hot weather is here, the pond has dropped a couple of feet already.
There is no fresh water(except rain)feeding into the pond and the only vegetation in the pond is bulrushes & lilies(the ones with the little red flowers).
A couple of years ago the same thing happened and hundreds of fish died in no time at all.
the number of fish has only just started to recover and I fear the same thing will happen all over again.
Anyone know of any solution to this? Who should I contact etc?

I forgot to add that maybe there is a methane problem as the pond is home to scores of ducks, moorhens and canadian geese obviously they crap in the water aswell as leaving it all over the bankside for us to walk in.
The silt on the pond bottom is black & stinks to high heaven, and gas bubbles rise to the surface constantly - amazing that there's fish in there at all!

ring 0800 807060 tell them of your concerns

AS ABOVE, NOW:- 0800 80 70 60 24 HRS

Let us know what is happening please.

will do

I have recieved a reply from the council who are in chareg of the pond as it has recently been made into a nature reserve.

here is the reply - I must say I am livid at their response.
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Dear Mr Lennon,

I'm afraid my only response to the current situation you describe is to
inform you of Brinkburn Pond's newly classified status of Local Nature
Reserve and the enhanced protection, wildlife and public use priorities the
site now enjoys.It's status as a valuable resource for wildlife and the
local people in the area to enjoy is of prime importance to Darlington
Borough Council.

The presence of fish (especially in large numbers
and sizes) also happens to be extremely bad for many aquatic dependent
species and as such is also a problem which we hope to address. For example
another Local Nature Reserve, Drinkfield Marsh, has had many of it's fish
stocks removed by the Environment Agency on our behalf in order to improve
biodiversity and reduce the activities of fishing. This may also occur at
Brinkburn in the near future.

Indeed, the act of fishing upon Brinkburn Pond is an unlawful one and this
will be enforced.

I'm sure you will agree that in the interests of wildlife within a Local
Nature Reserve and the activities of fishing, are in conflict.
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What a diabolical thing to say!
It has been a fishing pond years and years before it was made into a reserve last year.
They cant just tell us we cant fish it any more can they?
I tell you, all they are bothered about is the bloody great crested newt and moorhens. I have nothing against the newts etc, but they couldnt give a crap that nature reserves are meant to protect ALL the wildlife within the reserve. that includes the fish population.
The pond contains sturgeon and correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure sturgeon are an endangered species.
So what do you all think to this latest piece of news?

I have contacted the local paper(northern echo) and emailed the above letter to the paper.
Just waiting to see if they think it's important enough to write an article about it.
probably not - they'd rather write about politicians fingering eachother or something even less interesting.
hope they do, It may save the fish from being removed, and get the council to improve the water instead of taking the easy(and cheapest) way out.
How they can say fish are damaging to the other species on the pond is beyond me.
All that lives on the pond is newts,moorhens,ducks,geese and the fish. there are no predators, so none of the newts etc are gonna get eaten - theres only roach, crucian, tench & sturgeon. people say theres a couple of common carp in there, but i've never seen em.

Does anyone else share my views, or am I on a one man crusade?

Jason, would I be right to say that the Brithish record pumpkinseed came from the ponds in question in 1987? and is the picture on your treads a pumpkinseed?

I must say the whole think does stink of part time environmentalists. Councils must have a standard book "How to look like you care for the environment", and under fishing it must say BAD. As for fish WHO CARES NO ONE CAN SEE THEM.

I'm please Middlesbrough council took a better veiw with Albert Park Lake, restocking it after it's face lift, building fishing stations, and starting it's own angling club.

However, on the down side they've let Hemlington lake deteriorate and there has been large scale fish deaths this summer, perhaps if they let everything die in the lake they could make it a nature reserve.

I hope your letter is published in the paper, and good luck with your crusade. I run through to Darlington when I'm at work and know some of the lads are fishermen, I'll let them know of the situation, if they don't already know.

Davy the answer is yes, the record did come from that pond, and yes it's a pumkinseed on my treads. I thought I would have a pumkinseed on my treads cos I live around the corner from the pond.
Davy North - I've heard that name before.I must know someone who knows you Davy. cant think who it is though.

I doubt the letter will be published, but I had to try.

I want to start some kind of lobby or petition against the removal of the fish, to try and stop the council before it's too late.
Anyone got any ideas of how to do this?

Result!!

Northern Echo's chief reporter is going to contact me today!!

Any more news?

Did the EA get back to you?

As you pay your Lisence fee to the EA and that inturn is used within fisheries management , then anglers must have the right to fish, Or we are then subsidising other organisations own needs.

As for the sturgon, seems like it was put there from a fish tank or garden pond a while ago.
maybe the Carp should be removed, Pos desilting

Suggest you get on to the local Rag and get other local anglers involved also local tackle shops and EA fisheries officers.

Make a lot of noise about it, but make sure you get all the facts correct first.

Keep me informed, and good luck.

You can create a petition over the internet i have sighned many. Ask if fishingmagic will let you have a page on this site as a petition and ask people to sighn it when you have a lot of names print it off and send it to your council.

Put me down for that too.

And me too!

How would I go about asking fishingmagic to do that for me?

to see the newspaper report about this pond, go to http://www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/the_north_east/news/NEWS3.html

I must say I'm dissapointed with the report, just a couple of snippets, from the conversation i had with the reporter. makes me sound like I dont know what i'm on about.
Im talking about the bit about fish being dangerous to other species.
What I actually said was that There are no fish in the pond that would eat the newts etc, so I cant see why they would be a danger to other species.
Typical reporters, twisting what you say.

I need this petition more than ever now that the paper has just made things worse.

Can someone please, please, please tell me how to get a page on this site as a petition so I can present the council with a petition before the fish are taken away?

It wont be long before that happens, so I need to form a credible protest quickly, to make Darlington Council stop & think.