Refuge for endangered fish

Numbers of Arctic char have plummeted at Ennerdale in the Lake District because of acidity in the water caused by the surrounding coniferous woodland.The trees are being moved back from the lake, but in the meantime Kielder Water in Northumberland has become an "ark", BBC News reports.

It said the Environment Agency is to release10,000 young fish into the reservoir. The juvenile fish, which are two inches long, have been reared at the agency's Kielder hatchery.

Hatchery manager Richard Bond said they hoped the stocked fish would grow and ultimately breed in the streams that enter Kielder reservoir, preserving and protecting this rare strain.

Ennerdale has been stocked by fish reared at the Kielder hatchery since 2006. But this is the first time they have been released into Kielder Water.