Crayfish?

Tinytony

While fishing this evening I saw what I could only describe as a "mini lobster" on a rock beside me. From googling it seems it was mostly likely a crayfish. Are these common in Irish rivers? I've never seen one before. Apologies if they are common as muck!

coolwings

They are common where the water is clean and unpolluted.

Tinytony

coolwings wrote: »

They are common where the water is clean and unpolluted.

Oh right. Apologies for the stupid thread so! I've been fishing on the river for 3 years and never seen one but I'm probably not the most observant!

coolwings

Not a stupid thread at all!
Usually they are nocturnal, so much of their activity during the day would be underwater and out of sight.
Pollution has knocked them out of to many places down the years. Your location might very well have had none at all before, but now a few beginning to re-establish themselves again.

Zzippy

coolwings wrote: »

They are common where the water is clean and unpolluted.

AND where there is limestone geology - they need calcium in the water to grow their carapace/shell. None west of the Corrib or along most of the west coast due to acid geology.

Tinytony

Zzippy wrote: »

AND where there is limestone geology - they need calcium in the water to grow their carapace/shell. None west of the Corrib or along most of the west coast due to acid geology.

Ya it would be a limestone river alright, but I doubt it's the cleanest of rivers. This guy was pretty big, about 5 to 6" in lenght and nearly 2" in diameter.

niceirishfella

Can you eat them?

gillo_100

niceirishfella wrote: »

Can you eat them?

You can indeed, I remember Gordaon Ramsay talking about them one time on the F word. Think he said they taste simialr to lobster.

However, I think he did say something about licences. Now that was UK so might well be something different here. Suppose you'd have to contact Irish Fisheries Board to find out laws on it.

Also the way he caught them was with a mini lobster pot, might have just been a crab pot, think they can be smaller.

Zzippy

niceirishfella wrote: »

Can you eat them?

gillo_100 wrote: »

You can indeed, I remember Gordaon Ramsay talking about them one time on the F word. Think he said they taste simialr to lobster.

However, I think he did say something about licences. Now that was UK so might well be something different here. Suppose you'd have to contact Irish Fisheries Board to find out laws on it.

Also the way he caught them was with a mini lobster pot, might have just been a crab pot, think they can be smaller.

Absolutely not! They are a protected species and you cannot trap or fish for them under any circumstances. And the crayfish Gordon Ramsey was cooking was almost certainly a signal crayfish, a foreign species introduced from America, and not the native crayfish. Native crayfish in the UK have been almost wiped out by disease carried by signal crayfish.

Sfinn

Zippy's, right they are protected. Ramsay did use the signal crayfish for his dish.

Where roughly geographically did you see it. I'm constantly on the alert for alien species, did it look like the following link?

Check out this link http://www.irishscientist.ie/2001/contents.asp?contentxml=01p198a.xml&contentxsl=IS01pages.xsl


also i quote

"Fact file
The white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes)is Ireland’s only freshwater crayfish species.

It is a close relative of the three other European species: the rare Stone Crayfish (Austropotamobius torrentium), a native of the Alps and Balkans; the Noble Crayfish (Astacus astacus) from Germany and Poland and the Thin-clawed or Turkish Crayfish (Astacus leptodactylus) found mainly in south-eastern Europe.

Astacus species grow faster and reach a larger final size than those of Austropotamobius.

Ireland, Norway and Estonia are unique in having a single indigenous freshwater crayfish species (the Nobel in Norway and Estonia).

The situation is more complex in other European countries with France and Germany each with up to three indigenous species and several introduced exotics.

Irish white-clawed crayfish stocks are found mainly in lowland waters below220m and are plentiful in the midlands, from Corrib-Mask and the Erne to Lough Derg and the Barrow – or wherever there is Carboniferous limestone. They are absent however from some apparently suitable western habitats including almost all of Co. Clare.

Ireland's largest lakes (over 2,000 ha) also contain crayfish stocks but only near the mouths of inflowing rivers, which may be due to the fact that that they are a favorite food of eels.

The white-clawed crayfish is protected under the Wildlife Act and is classified as vulnerable and rare in the IUCN Red List of threatened animals. It is also listed under Annex II of the EU Habitats Directive.

Because Ireland holds some of the best European stocks of white-claw, the species is under least threat from external factors and are therefore of enormous conservation importance.

Nevertheless, the white-claw is under continuous pressure and its distribution and abundance have declined dramatically in the last 150 years due almost entirely to human activities such as over-fishing, habitat destruction and pollution.

The greatest threat it now faces is from the lethal plague fungus Aphanomyces astaci which has already wiped out many stocks of indigenous freshwater crayfish throughout Europe, most recently in Spain and Britain. Imported farmed signal crayfish from that source were the likely vector.

With no resistance to the fungus, European species usually die within two weeks.

The absence of American crayfish in the wild in Ireland provides a plague-free environment for the native species. Despite this however, so far the only diagnosed outbreak of plague in Ireland wiped out stocks in several midland lakes in 1986.

Fungal spores may have been introduced by fishermen, on fishing gear, or on the hulls of pleasure craft brought from Europe. Fungal spore can also be carried by water fowl and fish.

Increasingly, exotic crayfish in private aquaria are a threat to the white claw. Constant vigilance and control measures such as regular disinfection fishing gear before use in Irish waters is therefore essential. http://inshore-ireland.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=589&Itemid=165

regards

S

Tinytony

It was down the Limerick direction, you can pm me if you're looking for an exact location.

Ya it looked like the ones at that link although i didn't get to see it's under belly.

dogbert27

I've been to Finland a lot over the last few years and at the end of summer they have a crayfish party. Finnish crayfish can be caught in a small window, I think about 4 weeks and are very expensive. Most crayfish in Finland though are bought frozen from Spain or China.
Has anyone come across these from crayfish in Ireland? They are really nice with dill and on a slice of toast.

Zzippy

dogbert27 wrote: »

I've been to Finland a lot over the last few years and at the end of summer they have a crayfish party. Finnish crayfish can be caught in a small window, I think about 4 weeks and are very expensive. Most crayfish in Finland though are bought frozen from Spain or China.
Has anyone come across these from crayfish in Ireland? They are really nice with dill and on a slice of toast.

Did you read the thread? There's only one species in Ireland and it is protected. It is therefore illegal to catch or kill it, and definitely illegal to consume it with dill on a slice of toast!

i71jskz5xu42pb

Zzippy wrote: »

Native crayfish in the UK have been almost wiped out by disease carried by signal crayfish.

I think it was the river cottage series where they had a guy who was trapping them on some river in England. He was literally pulling buckets of the things out of the river.

http://www.rivercottage.net/TV~River%20Cottage%20Spring/524/Crayfishwhatstheproblem.aspx

dogbert27

Sorry Zzippy, I didn't make it clear in my post. I was asking if anybody came across the frozen crayfish from Spain or China. I came across frozen crayfish in Dunnes Stores a few years ago but have not seen them since. I knew that crayfish in Ireland were protected.

prentice

you can get imported crayfish from wrights of howth.

spfeno

Been fishing on and off for lot of years but never realised we had these in our rivers/lakes until about three weeks ago - fished a small lake in North Leinster and saw two just on the edge - the water here was spotlessly clean and clear - anyone want to know the lake name just PM me

Spfeno

elgriff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi3Rcnv79H0

b.w.ollie

the cray fish being used in the cooking are probably Signal crayfish, they were brought into England for aquaculture farms, escaped into the rivers and between being more agressive and carrying a 'crayfish plague' that effects the native white clawed crayfish. have spread rapidly in England. 95% of the native crayfish have gone in 20 years since the american signal (so called because of its red claws) was introduced it has been compared to the Grey/red squirrel problem. In England one wildlife organisation has called on anglers catching them, to kill them and not return them. This is why in Ireland the White clawed crayfish is a protected species, it is its last home in Europe. there are some good photos of our white clawed on a recent Castlebar paper ,google in ..whiteclawed crayfish castlebar,... it should find it ,googling in signal crayfish will get you som pictures of this Invasive species.

lalee17

I've seen lots of crayfish in the Liffey up at Leixlip.

VWB

See quiet a few of them along the liffey near athgarvan in Kildare. I was curious about them myself. Shame they are protected. I enjoyed recently feasting on them in Spain.

SeaFields

zombie thread. feel free to start a new thread VWB.