We squeezed in a survey session for White-clawed crayfish while there was a window of good weather last week. We carry out monitoring every summer with volunteers to measure the population in the Eden; one of the last strongholds for white-clawed crayfish in England, the UK’s only native crayfish species.

There are two main threats to their survival.

1. They are very sensitive to water pollution and only live in clean water, and
2. The North American signal crayfish, an invasive species of crayfish. Bigger and stronger than the native species, it competes for their food and carries a disease, crayfish plague, deadly to our native white-clawed crayfish.

We carry out White-clawed crayfish monitoring every summer with volunteers to measure the population in the Eden. Its numbers give us valuable insights into water quality and the presence of the invasive signal crayfish in the Eden.