It's been rather wet here over the past couple of days and it rained hard last night with further heavy showers this morning.  The upshot is that the river is running strongly at present with quite a colour so fishing is not really feasible until the level drops off a bit.

I spent most of yesterday involved with the crayfish strategy workshop at Malham Tarn Field Centre.  This event has brought together many of the movers and shakers in the crayfish world from organisations such as DEFRA, the EA, CEFAS (the aquaculture laboratory) and Natural England with the aim of producing a national strategy and set of policies to promote the conservation of native crayfish and control the spread of non natives. 

First of all we spent a couple of hours up at Ling Ghyll looking at the plague eradication project.  This prompted a lot of interest and debate and really set delegates thinking about the key issues around the control of crayfish plague.

Then it was over to Malham for a very warm welcome from the Centre and a first session aimed at getting people thinking about what was already being done around the country and what should be done in future.  It's clear that response to the threat of non native invasion and conservation of natives varies considerably from region to region, but much good work is being done in the field and a very lively discussion began which continued over an excellent dinner.

Thus fortified we turned to a series of thought provoking presentations which set on context the scope of the threat from non native crayfish species to a whole range of interests including those of both game and course fisheries.  The facts are truly frightening and as I have reported here before the bottom line is that where you have a high density population of American signal crayfish you have damn all else - no invertebrates, no molluscs and no fish recruitment.  This was graphically demonstrated by a picture showing a young fish with its throat cut by a signal crayfish.  Whilst this specimen (which was just about alive) was being measured and recorded a signal crayfish that was also being processed scuttled onto the measuring board and sank its cheripeds into the back of the head of said fish.  Ample proof that signals predate on quite large fish

These presentations generated a great deal of discussion and lead to some really focused thinking about the shape that a strategy might take.  What's emerging is the need for nationwide consistency in addressing the issues, but this must be tempered with flexibility to tackle catchment specific problems in their own way.  It was heartening not to discern any enthusiasm for a 'one size fits all' approach which is so often the response from Government Agencies.  These discussions were still going strong in the bar when I left at 10.30.

Today there are a series of site visits this morning that should get everyone nice and wet then we turn to the 'so what' questions which will hopefully lead to the formulation of a set of specific actions that should produce tangible results and lead to some real changes in the way in which non native spread is controlled and natives protected.

Representatives from the Angling Trust will be there this afternoon so I anticipate much more of benefit to fisheries interests coming out of this event.

Ian