YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED:-

Are they really such a pest?
We have been shocked by the huge numbers that are rapidly spreading and have seen at first-hand the environmental damage that they cause.
They are a real menace hidden away out of sight,
underwater and in some areas they literally carpet the river bed. They eat everything they can, including fish eggs and molluscs; they wreck the banks and buildings by digging tunnels; they carry a disease which kills our native White-clawed crayfish. There are numerous websites that deal with this topic.

How did they get into our waterways?
UK Government agencies introduced captive American Signal crayfish
to this country in the 1970s because of their excellent eating
qualities and in the belief that farming them would take the
pressure off the native White-claw crayfish. Unfortunately,
many of these aliens escaped from captivity, reproduced rapidly,
and now inhabit our waterways where they do great environmental damage.

What about any native crayfish?
The only crayfish that is native to the UK is the White-clawed crayfish
(Austropotamobius pallipes), which is smaller than the invasive Signal
crayfish and is killed by the "crayfish plague" that is carried
by the American invaders.
Only a few pockets of the UK now remain a sanctuary for our
White-clawed crayfish.

So what is your plan?
We first noted that American Signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus )
had allegedly become an endangered species in some parts of
the USA through over-trapping, and we concluded that the same should occur in the UK.

Anything special about your trapping system?
We developed the "clip and chain" system which has the following advantages:

1) The chain keeps all traps firmly on the bottom in a fixed position and causes no threat to navigating craft, unlike many bank-pinned or float-marked traps using cheap ropes that catch with propellers.

2) Our system allows for hundreds of traps to be in use without any sign of them. This means that they are not easily stolen or interfered with, nor are they an unseemly visual intrusion.

3) The system is very efficient in its operation. Over one hundred traps can be set or emptied in an hour. This means that it is still potentially cost effective to trap an area that has already been very heavily culled.
Traps remain in any one area until the crayfish haul drops to less than one small crayfish per ten traps.

Do you supply live crayfish?
We do not encourage the distribution
of live crayfish as they could potentially find their way back
into waterways that are not currently populated by
American Signal crayfish. Distribution of live crayfish in this
manner has led to infestations across Europe. As an alternative way forward
please look at the crayfish products available at www.crayfish-bob.co.uk

OUR FAVOURITE QUESTION (from a young angler as he looked at a bucket full of recently caught crayfish):
"Are they alive before you kill them?"
Yes.