Visitors to Pett Level and Winchelsea Beach were shocked to see tens of thousands of tiny fish washed up on the beach over the August bank holiday weekend. Some thought this might be the result of climate change, which has led to record temperatures in the UK this year as well as extreme weather events elsewhere in the world such as “unprecedented” fires within the Arctic circle.
Fortunately, this distressing phenomenon turned out to have a natural explanation. Schools of mackerel have been chasing whitebait, which in an attempt to escape, leap up onto the beach, where of course they die. The mackerel seem to have visited in droves this year, with one fisher reporting he had caught 50 in 15 minutes. Some mackerel were also spotted on the beach, their enthusiasm for their prey having countered their survival instinct.
For those concerned about climate change, Extinction Rebellion Rye is rerunning its oversubscribed public talk “Heading for Extinction” on September 12 at 7pm. Details and free tickets can be found online, or picked up at Grammar School Records on the High Street.
Image Credits: Anna Hollyman .
The headline to this article is misleading as it implies this natural phenomenon is associated with climate change influenced temperature rises. Whilst climate change is an important issue it is beneath professional journalism to hi-jack an unrelated story to further the cause
Thanks for your feedback. When I first heard about this, the people that reported it did genuinely fear that it was related to climate change or some other environmental damage. It was quite a shocking sight. We looked into it and as the story says, it is a natural phenomenon. But the initial concern was also part of the story so I included that element as well.
Anyway, thanks again for your comment which I will bear in mind for future stories.
Quite clearly the Editors of this publication are enthralled by the likes of XR and other climate change zealots.
I posted a comment that suggested the above headline is fundamentally wrong and nonsense. However the Editors saw fit not to publish it?
Must be getting some lessons from our current crop of politicians.
Thanks for responding, I have no issue with the climate change concerns being reported – the headline, in my opinion, gave the wrong emphasis to the story but perhaps that is an editorial responsibility rather than yours as a writer. I look forward to further articles