Fish used to improve water quality in China

Chinese authorities have turned to algae-eating fish to help them fight pollution in one of the nation's major lakes.

Exposure to sewage and industrial waste has left Lake Tai in the grip of a blue-green algae plague, but experts are hoping that an 8.6 million yuan (£816,000) campaign involving green and silver carp could improve the water quality, AFP reports.

According to the news agency, the Taihu Lake Fisheries Management Committee has arranged for 20 million fish to be released into the water over the next few days.

The authority first used carp to help clean up the lake in February last year and is now stepping up the initiative.

It is thought that a typical silver carp can eat 50 kilograms of algae and other plankton while gaining only one kilogram in weight during its lifetime.

Situated on the border of the Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, Lake Tai is the third largest freshwater lake in China and supplies water to approximately 30 million people.

Posted by Lauren Steadman