SOS! (That’s Save Our Sticklebacks)

ITS chilly waters may not look very inviting at this time of year.

But environmental workers are taking the plunge to remove thousands of fish from the Union Canal so that a three-mile section in Linlithgow, West Lothian, can be drained for maintenance.

Their catch – including perch, pike, brown trout and the three-spined stickleback – will be kept in holding tanks and later released to neighbouring sections of the waterway during the £300,000 operation, which will last until February 16. The canal – which is almost 200 years old and runs between Edinburgh and Falkirk – will be refilled using water from Cobbinshaw Reservoir, West Lothian.

Dr Olivia Lassiere, heritage and environment manager for Scottish Canals, said: ‘This will be the first drainage in living history, meaning that there has never been one to this scale before.

‘As we do that, we want to make sure that we are rescuing the fish.’

Canal clearance: Fish are netted after being stunned by an electric current Caught: Fish are transferred to a holding tank