On the banks of the Itchen River, a chalk stream located in Hampshire, southern England, anglers cast their lines into a landscape that looks like it belongs on a postcard. However, climate change threatens the survival of the salmon and trout that inhabit these chalk waters.
Robert Wellard, director of fishing areas at the Piscatorial Society, submerged a thermometer in the waters of the Itchen, near Winchester, and recorded a temperature of 17°C. According to Kathryn Boler, head of the freshwater programme at the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, this temperature should be closer to 12 or 13°C.
The fish in these regions have been weakened by an exceptionally hot European summer and by a drought that affected three quarters of England. These conditions threaten the balance of the rivers and the survival of their fish populations, which depend on colder waters to survive.
