Jo Procter and Janice Roberts went along to check the sea was coming through the two mitigation pipes into the Widewater. The Videos were taken an hour after high tide and the water was definitely flowing through both of them (press links below to view). There are several high tides over the next 5 days, when the water depth will be monitored again.
Bill Arundel Spotted this fella in the lagoon this week. Good to see him as we lost over 120 last year in the hot weather.
Penny Eaton spotted a parent fox and two cubs having a lovely time on the new Lagoon beach!
Nice to see that the water is definately flowing into the Lagoon although it still looks as if the water level is dangerously low and the smell as you walk along the top path is awful. The water looks dirty and polluted. I wonder if this affecting the wildlife?
I suspect that it has had an impact on the lagoon life. We know that the severe weather event has had an impact on a lot of animals, frogs and other amphibians for example. Scientists tell us that climate change has already increased severe weather events like this one so the question is – how quickly nature is able to recover? High atmospheric pressure reduces the hight of tides 1cm for each millibar above the seasonal average. Extended periods of high pressure, as we have just seen, will reduce the hight of the spring high tides and therefore the amount of sea water coming through the mitigation pipe. That combined with the high levels of evaporation is probably the reason for the low levels of the lagoon.