Volunteer day to save the fish from suffocating

With temperatures nudging 33c last July, the water in the pond evaporated to alarming low levels and, since no fresh water was running into it from the filtered drainage system in East Drive and South Avenue, dead fish started appear floating on the surface.

Since refilling the pond with tap water, or, as was suggested, getting the fire brigade in, would only have created a massive algal bloom of blanket weed that would have killed off the rest of the fish and pond life.

The solution, according to our park ranger Lindsay Cattanach, is to deploy oxygenator plants and do it in such a way that the swans and geese do not eat it.

As council funding is under pressure the Friends of Queen’s Park is funding the purchase Ceratophyllum dermersum, better known as Hornwort. It is one of best native British oxygenator plants and there will be a volunteer to get the plants into the pond on Sunday, 28th May. Come to the Park Ranger’s store room in the play area at 10.30 am for a health and safety briefing and collecting equipment.