Heavy rain may have caused death of 750 fish

Fish were seen coming out of the River Yare into the Wensum, from Trowse and towards Whitlingham Country Park. Archant

The fish found in the River Yare probably died as a result of heavy rain, the Environment Agency has said.

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Seven hundred and fifty fish were spotted next to Whitlingham Broad, with Environment Agency (EA) investigations likely to conclude that they died of suffocation from stale water being flushed into the river.

They were seen coming out of the River Yare into the Wensum, from Trowse and towards Whitlingham Country Park, by a member of the public on Tuesday.

The small perch, roach, and some pike were all dead and water samples have been taken to determine the cause.

“We are really trying to get to the bottom of this, investigating to try and understand what has happened or what may be happening,” explained Steve Lane, the EA’s fisheries technical specialist.

But he said the heavy rainfall in the last few days was most likely to have flushed stale water into the river, causing the fish to suffocate.

“If the fish are in the wrong place at the wrong time it can catch them out and overwhelm them. It is unusual but it does happen,” he said.

Earlier this year, thousands of fish were killed by the deadly prymnesium algae, but Mr Lane said it or water pollution were very unlikely to have been the cause this time.

And while 750 dead fish was not good news, Mr Lane said it was a relatively small number in comparison to the wide stocks.

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