Parliament Workbench

Petition · PE01558 · Session 4

American Signal Crayfish

Closed Submitted 9 Feb 2015 Rural Affairs
Signatures
1
35 online signatures with a country
Comments
7
Considered
6 meetings
in the Official Report

What it asks

Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to amend the existing licencing regime to allow for the commercial trapping of American Signal Crayfish in Scotland.

What the petitioner did first

Licencing applications have been submitted to Marine Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage with the support of two local MSPs and Dumfries and Galloway Council, including Community Councils in the Ken Dee Catchment Area.
Over the last 15 years, meetings have been held with Scottish National Heritage, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Marine Scotland, Galloway Fisheries and Ministers for the Environment.

Where it was considered

Official Report
  1. 23 Feb 2015
    Public Petitions Committee
    New Petitions
    1 mention
  2. 28 Apr 2015
    Public Petitions Committee
    Continued Petitions
    1 mention
  3. 26 May 2015
    Public Petitions Committee
    Continued Petition
    1 mention
  4. 22 Sep 2015
    Public Petitions Committee
    Continued Petitions
    1 mention
  5. 1 Dec 2015
    Public Petitions Committee
    Current Petitions
    1 mention
  6. 9 Feb 2016
    Public Petitions Committee
    Continued Petitions
    1 mention

Signatures by country

35 online signatures
  1. Scotland28 80%
  2. United Kingdom4 11.4%
  3. England3 8.6%

Comments

7 comments, oldest first
  1. Neil bromilow 11 Feb 2015
    Although we know we are fighting a losing battle against the signal crayfish if we do nothing we will achieve nothing.
  2. Darrel wilson 12 Feb 2015
    American signal crayfish are ruining the tourism in our area which we rely on.
    Fishing clubs used to come for weeks keeping our local shops hotels going now its all very minimal .
    Crayfish are a nenace turns a cheap hobby into a very expensive one
  3. Francis William Carcas 14 Feb 2015
    It is absolutely ludicrous that the petitioner has been given only 9 days to get signatures on this petition. It smacks of an intention to dismiss the whole subject on the basis that there is insufficient support for the petition. Unless action is taken this problem is only going to get worse. The American Signal Crayfish is an invasive, non-native species and it is important that it should be at least controlled, but at best eradicated. Given enough time to publicise it, I am confident that the signatures would run into the thousands.
  4. Moderator 16 Feb 2015
    Francis William Carcas
    - the petitioner is keen for this petition to be considered by the Public Petitions Committee at its meeting in Dumfries on Monday 23 February. Only one signature is required for a petition to be considered by the Committee, there is no required threshold for support. All petitions are considered on their merits and anyone may make a submission to the Committee.
  5. Christina Fisher 16 Feb 2015
    I believe we as a country should be pro-active in preserving native species and indigenous eco systems
  6. James Hunt 17 Feb 2015
    There is no scientific evidence that trapping can be used to control or eradicate Signal Crayfish. Such an exercise would be futile and would increase the likelihood of movements of Crayfish to other catchments
  7. Paul Bradley 18 Feb 2015
    Unfortunately, there is no evidence to support a proposition that trapping can ever realistically be expected to eradicate a population of signal crayfish. Furthermore, there is no evidence to support a proposition that trapping can be any more effective in controlling American signal crayfish than attempts to control Japanese knotweed by cutting. The untrapped proportion of a population is broadly analogous to the rhizomes of Japanese knotweed, which it is widely accepted no amount of cutting will control.

    However, trapping of signal crayfish is not a benign activity, trapping activity is very likely to increase the risk that signal crayfish will be spread to new areas, whether accidentally, deliberately, or recklessly. Hence, there is understandably huge concern amongst game fisheries in Scotland regarding any proposal to trap signal crayfish.

    Scotland will do well to look south of the border. Trapping in England has certainly incentivised a small and ill-informed minority to deliberately introduce signal crayfish to new areas, such as discovered by EA in the lower Lune catchment (Cumbria) in 2013. Removal activity has also increased the likelihood of incidental releases to new areas, whether by deliberate ill-informed release (such as occurred at Ensor's Pool SAC), dumping of unwanted catch (such as found by EA in the upper Lune catchment (Cumbria) in October 2014, or escapes during live transport from trapping sites (such as reported at Redwell Fishery, Cumbria).

    At present, I'm afraid, the best that we can do is to minimise the risk that signal crayfish will be introduced to new areas. If there is an answer to this problem, it is most likely to be found by research scientists at the molecular level, and there is likely to be a strong case for additional funding of such research in Scotland.