Fish at risk as Bude canal levels hit 'terrifying' low

The council said flushing the sea lock with canal water was "essential" work

Water levels in a canal in north Cornwall have reached a "terrifying" low as thousands of fish are at risk and businesses face closure.

Residents in Bude said a decision to "flush" the sea lock with canal water earlier in August was "shocking".

Cornwall Council said that work was "essential" to clear built-up sand and water levels recovered "almost immediately".

The county has experienced its "driest August in about 40 years".

The council said it had not taken the decision to stop all in-water events lightly

Charlotte Leslie, from Bude and former MP for Bristol, said she was "shocked" to learn about the flushing of the historic sea lock gate with canal water on 5 August.

"The canal does need to be flushed but often it's done with diggers which means you don't lose any canal water," she said.

"What's shocked me further was to find that this decision seems to have been taken when it was known that the water level isn't being replenished by the river because of understandable concerns about wildlife in the river."

On 8 July people in Devon and Cornwall were asked to save water as reservoir levels dropped and pressure on water supplies were forecast to increase.

Cornwall Council said the 5 August sluicing was "essential" and that diggers were only used after winter storms, "when the locks and lock gates have become substantially sanded in after winter storms."

It added: "However, this has not had a bearing on the present situation. The water level reduced by a small amount as a result of the sluicing and recovered almost immediately."

Mr Marks said some fish were potentially "at the very edge of survival" due to the low water levels

Steve Marks, Environment Agency drought lead, said there was now an "incredible pressure" on the ecology of the canal as the county faced its "driest August in about 40 years".

He said: "As the water levels have dropped it's concentrated a lot of fish, thousands of fish, in some very small parts of the canal, those fish are potentially at the very edge of survival.

"These fish may not survive without significant rainfall in the future."

Mr Marks added: "We've been meeting with Cornwall Council to offer advice which would include trying to minimise any loss of water in the canal including at the bottom where there are some sea lock gates."

A world cup quadrathlon event, scheduled for 17 September, has also been cancelled.

Simon Hammond, who works on the canal, said: "Rather than seeing that gradual, maybe slight drop in the level here, we've had some real sudden drops throughout July and August.

"The last one in early August was the last foot and a half of the canal water, it just disappeared."

The council added that it had not taken the decision to stop all in-water events lightly.