Crayfish ID, Worcs, UK. (1 Viewer)

Spotted this crayfish whilst walking along a small stream in Hurcott Woods in Worcestershire this afternoon, I have had an attempt at Id'ing it and think it is an American Signal Crayfish ~ is this correct?

Also, should my sighting be reported to anyone?

Looks like one of the blessed swines to me as well. Not sure who to report it to but go back and catch the thing.
There's a small colony of white-tailed crayfish close to where I live and if I ever see a signal crayfish anywhere near that colony...my boots are gonna get very wet.

Keith Dickinson said:

Looks like one of the blessed swines to me as well. Not sure who to report it to but go back and catch the thing.
There's a small colony of white-tailed crayfish close to where I live and if I ever see a signal crayfish anywhere near that colony...my boots are gonna get very wet.

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A half dozen Signal Crayfish make a very paletable snack. Go on line for recipe's. They're very nice with fried rice too.

If you have to kill them, it's better to make use of them than leave them to rot.

Harry

However you kill them, please can you do the same to the person who introduced them to the UK too

Thank you all for your replies! I was really surprised at how big it was, I thought they were normally about 7cm(ish) but this one must have been at least 20cm long so I wonder if it had been resident in this stream for a few years?

Maybe I will take a net with me in my rucksack the next time we go back to this area!!

and a stove and a knife and fork, make sure you kill the right one though!

Its worth noting perhaps that there are a few legalities to how one can go about catching signal crays (mainly to stop the risk of a) further transmission of the disease and b) bycatch damage to things like otters). If people are thinking of harvesting them from a local infested river (something I'd heartily recommend) it may be worth getting in touch with the local EA people to check what's what.

There's a big thread on wild about Britain about these. The problem is that people get over-enthusiastic about culling them, and people with a dangerous "little bit of knowledge" can end up killing the endangered white clawed crayfish by mistake. In some parts of the country, the EA was issuing free licences to trap them.

Another problem with the crayfish is that people use traps to catch them, and then otters get stuck in the traps and die. Try searching on "otter" and "signal crayfish" on google and see the problem.

On Thursday I found one of these menaces in my favourite local river (picture attached if I can work the attachments). I'm concerned about them taking off and utterly ruined it, but what can you do.

To be honest, I'm really despondent about invasive species. Particularly around the rivers. There's way out of control Himalayan Balsam. There's Japanese Knotweed, which is only patchy, but nothing is ever done about it. And there's floating pennywort. Now, signal crayfish.