The bailiff of a lake has spoken of his upset after hundreds of fish died.

Around 500 have already died at Palmarsh Fishery, near Hythe, and now the battle is on to save the remaining stock.

Bailiff Derrick Weller said: “It is so upsetting. I see the fish gasping for air and the eels trying to get out and there is nothing I can do.

“There are thousands of fish in the lake so we can’t move out the surviving ones. We are pumping in oxygen and using aerators but what we really need is a strong wind to move the water around.”

Environment Agency staff have been at the lake since the first dead fish were spotted on Sunday.

Mr Weller said water samples taken to test for blue or green algae have come back negative.

“I have been told it is an act of God,” he said. “The cold rain we had at the end of last week hit the warm water and turned it all upside down and stirred up the sediment.

“It is very upsetting because the fish are my bread and butter.”

Mr Weller has fished at the 55-acre lake, which is owned by Paul Nickolls, for more than 50 years and has been bailiff for 28 years.

He noticed a change in the water colour on Saturday and when he opened up at 6.30am on Sunday saw the dead and dying fish.

“The roache, perch and rudd were the first to go and now the bigger fish, the carp and bream are affected,” he said.

“We are hoping to save most of the stock by pumping in oxygen but need some rough weather.

“Nothing on this scale has ever happened here before. The Environment Agency tell me is it very unusual and there will be a lot of interest but there is nothing they can do. It is a question of nature taking its course.”

Mr Weller is trying to remove as many of the dead fish as possible – with a little help: “I had around 2,000 seagulls here on Sunday.”

Myles Robinson, fisheries technical officer for the Environment Agency, said: “It’s always devastating when fish die on this scale and we are working closely with the fishery owner to try and figure out exactly what happened.

“Palmarsh Fishery is a very large lake and the problem could be a very localised one, which makes it difficult to establish the exact cause.

“We are working to boost oxygen levels in the lake to give remaining fish a better chance of survival.”

Anyone seeing fish in distress should contact the Environment Agency incident hotline 0800 807060.