‘Without us, they are doomed’: volunteers save fish from French rivers drying up in heatwaves
Volunteers in France are actively rescuing fish from drying rivers as extreme heatwaves and climate change threaten aquatic ecosystems. The effort involves moving trout and salmon to deeper, oxygenated waters to prevent mass die-offs.
Why it matters
This highlights the tangible, immediate impact of climate change on local biodiversity and the necessity of human intervention to preserve ecosystems.
A dried-up branch of the Loire, in Loireauxence, last week. Photograph: Sebastien Salom-Gomis/Sipa/Shutterstock A dried-up branch of the Loire, in Loireauxence, last week. Photograph: Sebastien Salom-Gomis/Sipa/Shutterstock France ‘Without us, they are doomed’: volunteers save fish from French rivers drying up in heatwaves Fish being moved to oxygenated flowing water further downstream as water levels drop across country
Prefer the Guardian on Google Along the Odet River in Brittany, fisher Mathieu Le Bouter and a dozen volunteers are catching hundreds of trout and young salmon – not for sport but to save them.
They are only a few miles from the source of the river, which springs from the Black Mountains in Finistère and runs for about 40 miles (65km) into the Atlantic Ocean, but the water is barely up to their knees.
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