[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Dipper

The last thing the the white clawed needs now is a veritable army of perceived do-gooders laying traps, using nets and implementing other crayfish plague speading mechanisms.

Everyone agrees that the Signal issue is out of hand and that not enough is being done to halt its spread... I live in Hampshire and there are precious few sites here with White Clawed populations [and too many with Signals]. However, the reasoning against catching the signals follows the old adage that 'a little bit of knowledge is dangerous'.

How many viewers of the FWord have now been inspired to go out and catch Signals to 'help conserve' [sic] the native crayfish. Whats more important is how many of these people know anything about crayfish ecology, legal issues, identification, etc!

Most of this thread appears to be about "Where can I catch them/how do I cook them" which doesn't sound like an informed debate on how to stop the spread of Signals/crayfish plague. I don't often leave messages on these forums, being a bit of a lurker, and don't intend to offend, but I just had to comment as I fear that a massed culinery assault on the signals has too many bad implications for the White Clawed.

Enjoy your meal!

t would be pretty hard to mistake the two but more obviously there are hardly any white claws left and you wont get a licence / landowners permission to trap crays if whites are present. They dont tend to mix in rivers since the fungal disease carried by the signals tends to wipe out the whites.