Whilst Albert was being painted at High House last month, I saw a strange craft pass by and I just had to photograph it. It was a small outboard-powered boat with booms on each side and it was operated by a crew of three.
I soon realised that the crew were electro-fishing. Back in 2008, I saw a lake near Shuckburgh being cleared using electro-stunning and the fish being moved to another lake. As a result, it didn't take me too long to realise what was happening .
Electro-fishing boat in operation
Electro-stunning to empty a lake near Shuckburgh, 2008
Having established that the boat team were electro-fishing my next thought was why here and why now? They clearly weren't planning to stun fish ahead of draining the canal. I looked on line and found a photograph of the same boat with booms on a
CRT site. It's all about controlling the spread of that alien invader, the
zander. The middle Grand Union appears to be the area where they are trying to stop the zander moving south. It appears from the local press that they have been caught as far south as Stoke Bottom Lock. If caught they cannot be returned to the canal.
According to the CRT expert, Philip Smith, they are good to eat.
0 comments:
Post a Comment