A Brighouse fishery, in Yorkshire, will be the target of a survey by Environment Agency officers, following a number of fish deaths over the past year.
A team of four Environment Agency officers will be visiting Riley’s Pond on Friday 11 January, 2008. Riley’s Pond is part of the Brookfoot Lake fishery, and is used by members of the Brighouse Angling Association.
The team will use a combination of netting and electrofishing to capture fish so they can examine their general condition and check for such signs of stress as lesions and haemorrhaging.
They will also be using the survey to assess what species make up the pond’s fish population and roughly what weight of fish there is to be found there.
Once the results of the survey have been compiled the team will be able to make management decisions on the future of the pond. For example, if the pond is found to be overstocked with carp then some of them could be removed and transferred to the adjacent Brookfoot Lake.
Richard Atkinson of the Environment Agency said: “We’re keeping an open mind until we’ve completed our survey of the current fish stocks and checked on what fish are there and what condition they’re in. Then we can look at the best way forward to deal with the problem.”
