Yesterday we were called out to rescue two sunfish in the Sturrock dry dock. They were pumping the water out of this huge dry dock (it really is huge, 15m deep, 40m wide and 360m long and holds 201-million litres of water).
As the level dropped, dockworkers noticed that there were two sunfish stuck at the grate where the water flows out. By the time they noticed the fish the dock was nearly dry so we had to hurry. We hoisted them out using a stingray stretcher and the dock crane and drove them the short distance to the container basin in the double cab.
We had to take them out one at a time and while aquarists Simon Brill, Kevin Spiby and Deen Hill dealt with the first fish, Nic and I were left with the second. Nic had to hold it in the channel where the last few thousand cubic metres of water were rushing out at speed. It was quite tricky to hold on as the water was rushing and the fish was quite large, but the others got back just in time and we were able to lift the fish out in the stretcher.
They both swam away strongly and although they had a few abrasions, they did not look too damaged, so we believe they will be fine.
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