THOUSANDS of fish were saved from death when volunteers waded into a canal which had run dangerously low in the dry weather.
A walker first spotted fish gasping for oxygen in a section of the Grantham Canal in Cotgrave Country Park on Sunday afternoon. (Sept 22)
She began phoning the authorities, which led to around 20 local people springing in to action.
Members of an angling club were among those who spent hours ferrying the fish to a nearby lake.
Retired Cotgrave woman Pam Pickett was among those who heeded the call at around 2.30pm.
Ms Pickett, of Cloverdale, in the town, said: "I arrived at about 3pm and people were trying to get numbers together.
"There were people walking along and someone passed a number to Diamond Angling Club.
"Then loads of people just started turning up and fishing the fish out.
"They were all really struggling and some were getting mud in their gills."
The Canal and River Trust, a national charity which looks after the stretch of canal, also attended and is due back on site today (Tue) with a contractor to rescue more fish further along in the same stretch.
Fish including perch, carp, pike and sticklebacks were saved in four hours of effort in the water at what is known as Lock Six in the country park.
Ms Pickett added: "People really worked as a team, it was lovely to see such a community effort."
Russ Hamer, a member of Friends of Cotgrave Country Park, also helped out.
He said: "The water seemed to have gone down very quickly.
"I was just carrying buckets backwards and forwards.
"Other people were there all afternoon from about 3pm at a moment's notice, which I think was brilliant."
Low water levels can cause problems for fish as they can lead to a drop in oxygen levels.
In July, thousands of fish died at one of the Bulwell Hall Park Lakes, off Sandhurst Road, Bulwell, after oxygen levels fell due to the hot weather. Stephen Hardy, communications manager for the Canal and River Trust, said: "There's just not a very good water flow in that section of canal and because its been low we've been relying on rainfall.
"Today we'll be stepping in further down and getting more fish moved to somewhere safe."
Elsewhere, the Environment Agency said yesterday a "few hundred" fish died in the River Erewash near Langley Mill after a sewer overran.
Paul Reeves, of the Environment Agency, said staff managed to rescue some fish still alive in the stretch of water.
He added: "The pollution was due to a sewer that was blocked with sanitary items, causing an overflow into the river."
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