Fish moved from Dorset river as lack of rainfall has impact

As parts of England report their driest July since 1911 so far this month, officials have warned the country faces drought if the hot and dry weather continues.

Weather expert Dorset Sun said they have recorded just 0.7mm of rainfall in July so far.

"I believe many parts of east Dorset are yet to record even 0.1mm. This follows an average June for rainfall", he added.

Read more: Fish in country park pond died because of “fluctuating water levels”

Officials from the Environment Department (Defra) and agencies including the Environment Agency are meeting with water companies and other groups including the National Farmers’ Union and the Country Land and Business Association on Tuesday to discuss how to protect water supplies.

Scene at Upton Country Park

In Dorset, up to 700 fish have been moved from the River Tarrant in the past month.

While at Upton Country Park, carp were found dead due to "unprecedented dry conditions" in one of the beauty spot's ponds.

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: “Rainfall has been below the long term average across Dorset, Avon and Somerset and Wiltshire since November.

"Many river gauges are showing flows below normal for the time of the year, with some exceptionally low.

Read more: Fish found dead at a dried up lake in Poole

"This, combined with the hot weather, has resulted in us responding to many environmental incidents including six fish rescues on the River Tarrant, where we have moved a total of 600 to 700 fish in all over the past month."

Carp were found dead at Upton Park in Poole

While fish rescues on the Tarrant do happen most years, this year they have been earlier than normal as a result of the lack of rainfall, hot weather and large amount of weed growth which soaks up moisture.

The Environment Agency, the River Tarrant Protection Society and local residents worked together to rescue fish as water levels in the River Tarrant started to drop, leaving fish trapped in pools and unable to migrate downstream to the Dorset Stour.

Now, the Environment Agency and the Wessex Rivers Trust are working on some solutions to try and improve downstream fish migration under low flows to achieve what would then be a ‘natural occurrence’ in other rivers locally.

Rescued fish have included brown trout, juvenile salmon, grayling, eel, minnow and bullhead.  

All were relocated to the River Stour so they can migrate upstream when river flows return to normal.

A spokesperson for Bournemouth Water said: "While we have no immediate plans to implement water restrictions, the long period of unprecedented hot and dry weather we are experiencing means we are constantly reviewing our position and the extremely high levels of demand we are seeing.

"Overall, we are confident that we have sufficient water in our reservoirs and rivers. However, continued high demand and low rainfall will put strain on these precious resources.

"We always ask customers to think about their water usage and we are now urging customers to avoid non-essential water use such as filling paddling pools and using a hosepipe in the garden and for washing cars."

Bournemouth & Poole Weather said: "It’s clearly been very dry, you only have to look at the grass to see that.

"Officially the rain gauge hasn’t tipped once at Bournemouth Airport I believe so despite a few very light showers we’re still technically at zero recorded rainfall, a few local private weather stations have recorded 1 or 2mm of rain this month against an average of about 50mm but whether its 0, 1 or 2mm that’s exceptionally dry and with little rain forecast for the rest of the month it’s likely this July locally will be in the driest five of any months since records began at Hurn.

"Going back the last 6months or so we’ve only had about 70 per cent so we are getting to the stage we’re the lack of rain will start causing a few problems with maybe limitations on water usage such as hosepipe bans being considered."