Fish in Bristol lake to be killed to deter angling

• 18 December 2015
 
• From the sectionBristol

Image captionThe local Neighbourhood Partnership has approved an option put forward by Bristol City Council to destroy the fish rather than relocate them

All the fish in a lake in Bristol are to be removed and destroyed in a bid to discourage fishing.

Last year, the local Neighbourhood Partnership voted to ban fishing at St George's Park lake to stop wildlife being harmed by fishing line and hooks.

It has now approved an option proposed by Bristol City Council to destroy the fish rather than relocate them.

But Maggie Waldon, from the Friends of St George Park Group, said it did not support "outright killing of the fish".

The old boating lake, according to Ms Waldon, was stocked with fish about 20 years ago and has been used as a fishing lake for many years.

"It's become very run down and there are far too many fish in there to support any kind of ecosystem," she admitted.

"We would really like to reduce the number of fish but we don't support the outright killing of the fish.

"There are some fish that are very unwell in which case that's fair enough but our policy would be to relocate them and find them new homes."

'Expensive to move'

But Rob Acton-Campbell, chairman of the St George Neighbourhood Partnership, said it "would be more expensive to try and move them".

"We've tried over the last two years to have a permit scheme to try and manage the fishing, but unfortunately there's still been injuries to the swans and the cygnets," he said.

"We were hoping we'd be able to move them somewhere else but the council have had a health check done on the fish and they are very unhealthy.

"And there's nowhere really local that we can move them too that would cope with the number of fish that we've got."