crayfish guide

[EdS]

you might need to translate it but the pictures are good:



http://www.pescaok.it/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=1017

 

[Adze]

Good pictures, hard to mistake a red swamp crayfish for anything else isn't it?

This one is worth a read too:
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/static/documents/Leisure/crayfish_and_river_users_pdf.pdf

Useful information regarding the law in England and Wales here:
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/recreation/fishing/38045.aspx

Cheers,

 

[Toddy]

Useful links gentlemen Thank you.

cheers,
M

 

[EdS]

could we make a sticky with guides and law? Crayfish questions are pretty common so maybe a numbty guide where it can be seen?

 

[Toddy]

Good idea

I've been trying to build up a list of good links and these are going into it.

I'll pass this one by Tony and see what he thinks.

cheers,
M

 

[Adze]

If this is going to be the crayfish thread feel free to include this little lot. I wrote some of it a while back for another forum.

If you find Signals in any numbers in a water then the natives are almost certainly long gone - crayfish plague, a fungus carried by the signals but which, for the main part, doesn't affect them will likely have killed the white claws very effectively. With that said it's definitely worth checking the identification of anything you do catch carefully, if for no other reason than to be on the safe side.

Some identification pointers:

Size is the first factor - white claw (Austropotamobius pallipes) are typically around 10cms (4ins) long with a really huge specimen being around 15cms (6ins). Signals average 15cms with the potential to grow to 30cms (12ins). Most other non-native crays are similar in size to a large white claw but only the Turkish will grow to the same maximum size as a signal.

Signal (Pacifastacus leniusculus) crays have large, often bulbous looking claws with a white or blueish spot at the junction between the pincers. White claws have shorter, narrower and less bulbous claws with no white spot and the underside of the claw is a pale cream or pinkish colour. The claws of the signal are smooth on both surfaces whereas the white claws have a rough upper side.

Turkish (Astacus leptodactylus) crays are the easiest to spot as they have very long, very narrow claws - much like a langoustine to look at.

Noble (Astacus astacus) crays are much closer to white claws and harder to distinguish but lack the white/cream/pink colour under the claws.

The red swamp (Procambarus clarkii) crays are... well... red... bright red and have more spines than an explosion in a porcupine factory. Definitely the easiest to identify.

Lastly the spiny cheeked (Orconectes limosus) cray, very similar in size to a white claw and also having a light coloured underside to its claws. Most easily identified by the row of spines along each side of the thorax which the white claw lacks.

Other things:

Trapping as opposed to fishing

Trapping crayfish, or any other species for that matter, in fresh water in England and Wales requires a licence to use a 'fixed engine' from the EA. These are usually only given for a specific location at a specific time or date and are highly unlikely to be granted to individuals unless they are riparian owners or their agents acting in a fisheries management capacity. Trapping without a licence will likely land you with a hefty fine and confiscation of any gear used, up to and including vehicles. For the purposes of licensing for trap think "anything which is left in place, unattended, which can prevent or impede the escape, by whatever means, of anything which enters it. What they are made from is irrelevant. Example: A baited wire cage with a vertical drop or funnel entrance is a trap A flat drop net laid on the river bed is not.

Fishing for crayfish, with a drop net, hand net or bait-on-a-string is NOT illegal and the jury is out as to whether catching and eating a few crayfish once in a while does harm or good to the environment they're in. They are, however, extremely tasty, simple to catch and prepare. I found an old 18inch bicycle wheel, weighted and covered in netting from an old keepnet did about the best job - keep the netting reasonably taut and the crays get pinned to it by water pressure as you hoist the net up. Once on land they will try to scatter - they can move surprisingly well out of water so if there's a lot on the net be prepared to move quickly. Some heavy gardening gloves or welding gauntlets will let you work that bit quicker without getting nipped - which seriously stings by the way and is best avoided!

There are restrictions on keeping live non-native crayfish in England and Wales but, from memory, there is an exception made for using them in a reasonable time - if I remember correctly keeping them in an aquarium for a few days to purge them would be acceptable, a few weeks probably not.

Cooking them is very simple, just boil 'em. Some people prefer to chill them before putting them into boiling water as allegedly it puts them into a torpor and they 'feel nothing'. They die instantly on contact with boiling water and this is probably the simplest and most humane way to dispatch them. Another method I heard about a while ago was to put them in cold water and gently warm the water up to boiling - by the time the water gets to a point where it might cause the crays distress they will have already fallen asleep and be blissfully unaware. I've tried all the above and none of them makes a difference to the way they taste. Always remove the black line which runs down the tail meat - signals will eat more or less anything organic, if you eat the black bit, so are you - nuff said. The claws of signal crays hold very nearly as much meat as the tail and they're pretty easy, compared with lobster and langoustine, to get into with just a knife and fork.

Hope that's useful.

 

[FGYT]

on fishing for them do you need a rod licence and Day ticket etc etc etc as you would for normal Fish Fishing ???

ATB

Duncan

 

[Adze]

You need a rod licence to fish with a rod and line (note: hook is optional, seriously) anywhere in England and Wales. You don't need a rod licence unless you're using a rod and line - net fishing for crayfish doesn't require a rod licence.

You need permission to fish from the riparian owner (that's not always the same as the land owner - it's the person/organization who controls the rights to use the water). Permission is usually granted as a ticket or permit to fish which can be a day, other period e.g. week/month or season permit. What you're allowed to remove from the water will be governed by that ticket, assume you're not allowed to take something unless it's specifically listed - if in doubt, ask.

There's still a fair bit of free-for-all fishing where permission is automatically granted by local government bodies etc.

There's a resource here: http://www.dofreefishing.co.uk/ but I've no idea how up to date it is.

Bear in mind that there aren't really any significant populations of signal crayfish North of the Midlands and that the Thames region is the worst affected - everywhere else, pay particular attention to identification

 

[charlieh]

Hi,

been lurking for a bit now and should say what a great forum, I work on crayfish conservation and the one thing i would really really emphasise is that equipment should be dissinfected between trips, especially if going into unknown streams, ideally with an iodine based one, and left to dry for a few hours

The EA wont issue license for trapping outside of the Thames catchment for consumption purposes, they will issue them for fisheries management in other areas but these are few and far between,

We have had a few people prosecuted local under theft laws, where by the people using fixed engine and drop nets were fishing illegally without landowner permission and as such the landowners took the prosecution forward independantly.

The other thing as well is that trapping will ultimatly increase numbers as it removes the larger dominant individuals and leads to larger numbers of smaller crayfish so the biomass of crayfish increase significantly

hope this if of some use

Charlie

EDIT: I should also add the landowner doesnt always own the fishing or sporting rights, it may be owned privately or by fishing clubs

There are restrictions on keeping live non-native crayfish in England and Wales but, from memory, there is an exception made for using them in a reasonable time - if I remember correctly keeping them in an aquarium for a few days to purge them would be acceptable, a few weeks probably not.

I would consider the movement of a non-native species into anysort of captivity to be a breach of Wildlife and Countryside Act, I have a Government issued license to take and possess native crayfish for conservation work but invasives must be killed on the bank to the best of my knowledge, although i can ask the question about this, i dont think it would accpetable to move them live as you would still need a license, the exception being the areas identified in the 1996 crayfish act, which i dont know of the top of my head

 

[Angus Og]

Hi,

been lurking for a bit now and should say what a great forum, I work on crayfish conservation and the one thing i would really really emphasise is that equipment should be dissinfected between trips, especially if going into unknown streams, ideally with an iodine based one, and left to dry for a few hours

The EA wont issue license for trapping outside of the Thames catchment for consumption purposes, they will issue them for fisheries management in other areas but these are few and far between,

We have had a few people prosecuted local under theft laws, where by the people using fixed engine and drop nets were fishing illegally without landowner permission and as such the landowners took the prosecution forward independantly.

The other thing as well is that trapping will ultimatly increase numbers as it removes the larger dominant individuals and leads to larger numbers of smaller crayfish so the biomass of crayfish increase significantly

hope this if of some use

Charlie

EDIT: I should also add the landowner doesnt always own the fishing or sporting rights, it may be owned privately or by fishing clubs

I would consider the movement of a non-native species into anysort of captivity to be a breach of Wildlife and Countryside Act, I have a Government issued license to take and possess native crayfish for conservation work but invasives must be killed on the bank to the best of my knowledge, although i can ask the question about this, i dont think it would accpetable to move them live as you would still need a license, the exception being the areas identified in the 1996 crayfish act, which i dont know of the top of my head

Hello and welcome,

great first post and good info this is what we need more people with real working experience.

 

[Adze]

Thanks for the clarification Charlieh - I'm looking for the reference on short term relocation/captivity and will post it once found.

In the mean time - another cracking link:
https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/nonnativespecies/downloadDocument.cfm?id=68

DEFRA's pdf for ID purposes - some great images and text therein.

Cheers,

 

[Adze]

...and another:

https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/nonnativespecies/downloadDocument.cfm?id=54
DEFRA's .pdf risk assessment sheet for Pacifastacus leniusculus

Charlieh - found one of the references for licence requirement for keeping of Pacifastacus leniusculus here:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/fisheries/documents/freshwater/licreq.pdf

I'll try to find the other reference regarding time - apologies for the delay only it's been some time since I revisited this.

Cheers,

 

[Adze]

Further to the above:
http://www.efishbusiness.co.uk/controls/part02.asp

 

[Adze]

Another .pdf, this time from the EA.

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/static/documents/crayfish_and_river_users_pdf.pdf

The Golden Rules at the end are just that, pure gold.

Try as I might I can't find the reference for keeping signal crayfish short term for consumption, so until I do please assume it's out of date or that I imagined it - other than in areas delimited in the second link of reply 12.

Cheers,

 

[slamdunk]

Useful links and info folks - very handy!