Abstract

New legislation, "The Prohibition of Keeping of Live Fish (Crayfish) (Amendment) Order 1996" has recently been introduced (May 1996) to conserve native crayfish, Austropotamobius pallipes, in England and Wales. Parallel legislation has been implemented in Scotland. The main tenet of the legislation is to create prohibited areas for crayfish farming to help stop the spread of crayfish plague and signal crayfish, Pacifastacus leniusculus. However, there has been a recent change of emphasis in crayfish production from farming to trapping new wild populations of non­native crayfish, i.e. the signal crayfish, P. leniusculus, and the narrow-clawed, Astacus leptodactylus. The growth of the crayfish farming industry is tabulated against the rapidly increasing crayfish trapping industry. Details are given of the problems caused by trappers who make further crayfish introductions to the wild to expand their­businesses. Such activities conflict with conservation measures for the native crayfish and the spirit of the new legislation. In the past commercial pressures have prevailed against conservation of native crayfish. Action points are presented to try to prevent this happening again and to highlight needs for future research.

Supplemental Documents

• There are no supplementary documents for this article

Cited By

Citations: