Just dont catch the wrong ones
http://www.fishnewseu.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3255:crayfish-confusion-costs-conservationist-p4k&catid=44:uk&Itemid=162
Matt Brazier, Fisheries Team Leader at the Environment Agency said: “We need to protect our native crayfish populations, and managing trapping is a vital way to achieve this.
“The media have raised the profile of signal crayfish as ‘food for free’, and highlighted the need to protect native white clawed crayfish from signal crayfish. However, as this case demonstrates this can do more harm than good. The public perception is often that trapping of signal crayfish is benefiting the environment. In reality the risks this activity brings can outweigh the benefits. Legal trapping is permitted in some areas, but it is not a sustainable means of addressing the problems caused by non-native crayfish.”
“Signal crayfish have spread so rapidly as a direct result of deliberate and accidental introductions by man. Promotion of signal crayfish as a food source can lead to an increase in this activity. Unregulated trapping also increases the risks of spread of crayfish plague, risks to otters and other wildlife through the use of inappropriate traps, in which they can drown, and as we see here, accidental trapping of our native crayfish species.”
I would encourage anyone considering trapping crayfish to contact our National Fisheries Permitting Team for advice on 01480 483968.?