Are they really such a pest?

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

Whiteclawed crayfish and any other non-American crayfish.

Do you catch 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. For this reason White-clawed crayfish are not found in areas where the American Signal are well established.

Can UK crayfish offer an alternative to the cheap

Chinese crayfish tails?

Even were our crayfish readily available to the public, the UK could not compete on price because of the cheap raw material and labour costs in China. UK crayfish tail meat sells at 5 times the price of the Chinese import. But they are two different products. Firstly, Chinese sourced crayfish are a different species and from a different family of crayfish. Secondly, there is no comparison on flavour. Chinese crayfish have lost their flavour in the industrial processing and generally benefit from “flavour enhancers” before being offered for sale. UK caught crayfish are never processed so severely. But Chinese crayfish tails are readily available. UK caught crayfish are not.  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.

F.A.Q