News

The battle of crayfish in UK's rivers

(20 December 2002)

Important evidence on the onward march of the American signal crayfish through the UK's watercourses is revealed today at the British Ecological Society's Winter meeting held at the University of York (19 December).

Damian Bubb, an ecologist of the University of Durham, conducting research for a PhD, is reporting on how he has used radio tagging to track the rate at which American crayfish have been spreading through North Yorkshire's Rivers.

The UK's native white clawed crayfish- a priority species for conservation within the UK Biodiversity Action Plan- is being out-competed on all fronts by its American Rival. Except from the American crayfish being bigger, faster growing, able to have more young and carrier of a deadly crayfish plague to UK's crayfish, Damian Bubb has now discovered that it is also able to travel great distances at rates of more than 1 km a year. Using small radio transmitters of less than 2g fixed to adult crayfish he has been able to follow where and how far the crayfish are moving.

The meeting also heard from other speakers about an important new method for accurately assessing native crayfish numbers in the UK, commissioned by the Life in UK Rivers project and which will form the basis of a new database part of pan-European effort to conserve native crayfish species.