ROSS PARRY SYNDICATION: Environmentalists have had to make a dramatic rescue of 2,000 fish from this bone-dry canal - part of which has been closed despite pouring rain in the last six weeks.

The retrieval is just the latest incident in an area which suffered a massive blow to its tourism industry after the decision was made to shut off a 60-mile stretch of the waterway earlier this month.

It could not have come at a worse time as traders entered the busiest time of the year for holidaymakers, and now boating businesses, pubs and restaurants in the patch are feeling the effects.

Boat-owners were informed two weeks ago that they would not be able to use the section of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal from Gargrave, North Yorks., to Wigan, Lancs., because Shortages in rainfall had left the reservoirs extremely low.

And as the levels fell to a critically dire state, fish experts waded in with large nets to trap the animals so they could be transferred to other sections of the canal where there was more water.