Dying fish in Ipsley Pool (From Redditch Advertiser)

Dying fish in Ipsley Pool

12:03pm Tuesday 10th November 2009

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AN unfortunate natural phenomena has seen fish dying in huge numbers at Ipsley Pool in Redditch.

The pool, which is popular with local fishermen, lies just north of Forge Mill Museum, and this year saw a bloom of algae which in itself was harmless.

But over the last week the algae, which has now sunk to the bottom of the pool, has begun to decompose and use up all the pool's dissolved oxygen, leaving fish struggling to breathe.

Local fisherman John Ison, said: "Never ever in 35 years of fishing have I ever seen anything like this. It's a crying shame. I literally picked up out of the water a 10lb carp. It was too weak to move."

Redditch Council, which owns the pool was contacted about the problem on Thursday.

A spokesman said: "Acting on advice from the Environment Agency we sent contractors out on Friday morning to remove dead fish from the pool.

“Officers from both our landscape and countryside, and environmental health teams visited the site first thing on Monday to check this had been done and to assess the situation, and the council will be aerating the pool water over the next few days following water treatment work which is currently being carried out by the Environment Agency."

The agency currently has a system called Oxyget set up at the pool to temporarily raise the oxygen levels and hopefully save some of the fish.

Concerned onlooker, Anne Davis, said: "When I went down over the weekend there were dead pike right near the surface, and these are deep water fish. They're really suffering. You'd think we were at the seaside the amount of gulls that are down there."

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