Crayfish update - the anglers continue the fight

Two pictures from another recent trip up the Geddes burn by Nairn anglers to check the traps. One of the anglers told the Gurn:

"The large cray fish on the left was over 7 inches long from tail to claw tip, the 3rd cray fish from the left was the mother of the 47 young in front of her which we got last week. In total we had 14 cray fish plus 47 young, today we had another 14 plus 32 young. In the last 2 weeks since you did the original artical we have caught 28 plus 79 young, this gives us a total count of 151 so far for the season, and it is only the end of June, (we keep doing this untill the end of October) 151 which will no longer breed! Who says we are wasting our time?"

Over to you SNH - still not supporting the efforts of the Nairn Anglers to protect the local eco-system from the invaders?

Crayfish patrol on the Geddes Burn

Up close with one of the North American invaders.

Nairn Anglers were up as usual checking the traps in the Geddes Burn this weekend for the North American Signal Crayfish Invaders. Above you can see two of the regulars (as not seen on TV) holding one of the beasties. These creatures that like feasting on salmon eggs and other indigenious elements of the local ecology are also partial to catfood. Some more pictures on the Gurn Flickr pages.

BBC Plonkers

Mrs Gurnmeister gasped with indignation this evening while watching Landward on BBC2 as the reporter referred to "the Nairn in Morayshire".

Apart from that elementary mistake the snippet on the River Nairn was as advertised, Nairn anglers were shown catching North American Signal Crayfish in traps. The mannie from SNH was rather defeatist however, claiming that very little could be done but Nairn anglers feel that they can make a difference. Amazing isn't it? The authorities are keen to spend big money on getting all the mink but when it comes to these crayfish beasties that like to eat salmon eggs it's a different story. Bin the defeatist mannie and spend the equivalent of his salary on a few more traps?

PS if you didn't see Landward then issue 12 is available on the BBC iPlayer for a few days. The Nairn item is about 10.48 minutes into the video.

River Nairn Crayfish problem to hit the small screen

The BBC Landward team were in town this week filming and interviewing for a programme that should be going out next Friday 3rd June.

The Gurn understands that they were at SNH Edinburgh on Monday, filming there about the crayfish (The North American signal crayfish, Pacifastacus leniusculus to be exact - picture here) then came up to Nairn later in the day. Tuesday morning at 9 they filmed Sandy Robb the River Nairn Water Bailiff then at 10 they filmed the Angling Association doing the traps and then asked a lot of questions. It was Sarah Mack who did the interview.
The anglers who were filmed were Willie Barron (president) Billy Milne (vice president) and Charlie Black (committee member).