Carp Diem

I didn’t hear it myself but during the flooding of Hull, ten years ago this weekend, it is said that an appeal went out on the radio to get down to a local Asda Supermarket. It was not for a bargain clearance or sales promotion but to claim and retrieve a shoal, or whatever the collective name is, of ornamental Koi Carp that had been seen swimming around freely amongst the water filled car park. 

The washing out of garden ponds in the inundation of late June 2007 inadvertently released many a prized and pampered Koi into the streets of Hull along with the wider contents of plant life and vegetation. 

As well as the hardship and stress imposed by the damage to their own homes and possessions by the brackish and sewage polluted flood waters this loss of carefully nurtured fish will have hit hard emotionally and financially. 

Residents in the worst affected areas of the city also reported that when wading calf deep to salvage furniture and fittings or directing traffic so as not to cause an even more destructive bow-wave of water they could regularly see distinctive Koi passing by.

The task of an actual owner to recapture their involuntarily liberated fish, unless confined to their actual waterlogged gardens, will have been near impossible. 

The flood waters did rapidly recede in the majority of residential areas and yet I am not aware of any stories of Koi carcasses being found high and dry in the following days. 

So what happened to those that were never found? 

It is widely thought that the Koi, a non-native species to the UK ,will not have been able to survive in the local rivers and streams. The combination of intolerance to water temperatures, oxygen levels and scarce availability of suitable food may have been too much. The level of contamination from release of sewage into the water will also have been a major threat. 

Natural predators from the voracious Pike to vigilant Heron, rarer Mink and Otter will have enjoyed a welcome variation in their normal boring diets. In shallow pools and puddles the fish may have been devoured by the fox or even domestic cats. Carp is supposed to be quite a tasty fish and although is not widely eaten by the population of this country it is a popular dish in parts of Europe.

A few fish will have found their way into neighbourhood ponds either privately owned or in Corporation Parks and become easily acclimatised although having previously relied on regular feeding a further number will have perished. 

In the recent flood hit city of Carlisle three Koi were found lurking around in the goalmouth of the football stadium and were returned to captivity. 

More hardy species previously safely managed in ponds such as catfish and even the exotic Piranha have been spotted in the wild, or rather their presence has been indicated by the decimation of native fish stocks. In the case of the carnivorous South American Piranha the hooking of one by a local angler must have been an unexpected surprise and a big shock.

As well as the introduction of Koi and other fish breeds into the local ecology another identified problem has been the rapid growth of alien species of pond vegetation in rivers and streams. 

Although controllable in a domestic pond the Environment Agency has issued alerts over thriving plants such as Pygmy Weed, Parrots Feather, Floating Pennywort and the most prolific in terms of speed of spread and choking surface coverage, the Curly Waterweed.

As well as preventing the reaction of sunlight with the flora and fauna of a watercourse the density of the weeds has caused livestock fatalities. Sheep and cattle have mistaken the verdant appearance to be an indication of solid ground and have not been prepared for the reality of the ditch, dyke or waterhole concealed beneath. 

The statistics arising from the Hull flood of 2007 are hard enough to comprehend. Notwithstanding the incalculable tragic loss of a life in West Hull some 6300 of the population were forced into temporary accommodation and a further 1400 took to caravans, mainly in the front or rear gardens of their flooded homes. Many endured a long and difficult time until it was possible to re-occupy. 

The equivalent of two months rainfall fell in a two hour period and across a wider Yorkshire region some 17,000 homes were affected. The cost of insurance reinstatement is estimated to have been around forty one million pounds. 

By comparison, the loss of a few fish may seem trivial.