"THE BROADS NATIONAL PARK, England - As seagulls circled above and tourists watched in confusion, Duncan Holmes steered his boat through thousands of dead fish bobbing at the surface of the River Thurne in east England.

Holmes, 48, a retired engineer turned fishing instructor, was out one day in September to document the severity of a fish kill that has amplified concerns about declining biodiversity and fragmented conservation efforts in The Broads National Park.

A local fishing group estimated that hundreds of thousands of freshwater fish, mollusks and key insects died after successive high tides trapped inland by strong onshore winds - and exacerbated by a months-long drought - caused high levels of saltwater from the North Sea to surge upriver.

For Holmes - whose family has lived in the region for generations - there was "despair that you're seeing it again and again," he said, referring to the fish kill last year."

Rachel Parsons reports for Thomson Reuters Foundation April 26, 2023. [2]