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Invasive signal crayfish
Signal crayfish were climbing out of the pond at night to graze on the grass of the adjacent fairway!
American species are only carriers, or vectors, and will not succumb to it, but it is fatal to species from Europe and Australasia. It has been directly responsible for the loss of many local crayfish populations and has caused the catastrophic decline of white clawed crayfish here in the UK. There is no way to stop the plague, if carriers are present. Many species have been moved
around the globe, and this has been happening ever since mankind began sailing the oceans. Initially, food crops were collected and taken home for planting - think of the potato, brought to Europe from South America in the early 16th Century. Signal crayfish were first
brought over to Europe in the mid 19th Century and are probably in over twenty-five European countries. The first plague outbreak in Europe is believed to have been in Italy in 1859. Not all alien species become
which are highly problematic, difficult to control and costly in terms of their impacts. Unfortunately, it is only in relatively recent years that we are really waking up to the problems of global species transfer and, if we were to attempt to put things right, even if it were possible, it would be phenomenally expensive. It has been suggested that the cost of controlling crayfish has never been estimated; although a recent paper estimated that over £2 million was spent each year addressing the issues associated with signal crayfish, and over £500,000 in Scotland, a country without any native crayfish. The cost of eradication would be enormous; by way of an example, the cost of eradicating Japanese knotweed from the UK was estimated, several years ago, at £1.56 billion. The loss of white clawed
invasive, and it is worth looking at crayfish to highlight some of the characteristics which enable them to flourish and, often, outcompete the native species.
Both American signal crayfish and red swamp crayfish, two of the most widespread species, have common characteristics that have enabled them to be very successful in getting established and, then, effectively spreading and taking over. In the first instance both are widely eaten, and this alone gives an incentive to introduce them to new areas. In addition they:
• are highly fecund (produce many eggs)
• are vectors of a pathogen known as crayfish plague
• will survive out of water or in dry watercourses/ponds
• are often more tolerant of pollution
• are more aggressive • dig their own burrows
The problems with invasive alien species are widely known. Japanese knotweed in Britain, rabbits and cane toads in Australia, zebra mussels in North America to name a few. Crayfish are another species
crayfish populations in England and Wales has been so dramatic that it may well be irreversible. However, there are conservation projects now being set up to try and reverse the trend. A major recent initiative is the ‘Ark Site programme’, which aims to identify isolated self-contained sites that can support a healthy, self-sustaining population of white- clawed crayfish.
existing Ark sites and more planned, there is an urgent need for many more to be established to safeguard the long-term survival of white-clawed crayfish across England and Wales. Setting up Ark sites can be straightforward and inexpensive, and can provide a sustainable future for the white-clawed crayfish in the UK. If you have a potential Ark site on your land, feel free to contact the author for more information.
Dr Mark Hampton, Peak Ecology
www.peakecology.co.uk Email:
markhampton@peakecolgy.co.uk
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White-tailed crayfish
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