Vendace may have vanished

Last updated 19:44, Thursday, 17 July 2008

THERE are fears that a rare ice age fish may have disappeared from one of its last two Lake District homes.

Surveys at Bassenthwaite Lake failed to find any trace of the vendace, although the fish is still in nearby Derwentwater.

Dr Ian Winfield, of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology at Lancaster University, used specialist video equipmentto search for the vendace in Bassenthwaite.

Derwentwater still has some of the ancient species, but his findings suggest that Bassenthwaite’s population could be facing extinction.

Dr Winfield said the exercise did not prove that vendace had completely gone from Bassenthwaite, and searches would continue.

And even if vendace are lost to the lake, they could be reintroduced from stocks of vendace which were transferred from Bassenthwaite Lake to Loch Skene in Scotland two years ago.

Bassenthwaite’s vendace face environmental problems including silting, low oxygen levels and competition from other fish.