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Mitten Crabs in the Yorkshire Ouse

David Maddison

David Maddison

Senior Member
I've just seen a post on social media about an angler claiming to have had problems with what he believed to be Mitten Crabs stealing his bait, and claims to have brought one up to the surface!
As these are an invasive species much like Red signal crayfish this is worrying, and if true are the EA aware of there presence??. Has anyone caught or witnessed one caught on the Ouse??
 
Have they not been in the Humber for some time? Unlike signals they migrate to brackish water to breed, ... in their native China they've been recorded as far as 1500km upstream of estuaries.
Saw this piece from 2009 ...

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/4144113.display/

They used to turn up in the Mole especially near the Thames confluence but couldn't compete with the tons of signals i suspect! :rolleyes:
 
I have caught a couple of legs, and one whole one from the tidal Trent some years ago.

Heard they're good eating...
 
I had one on the bank at Naburn lock about 4 years ago, it had got tangled up on the hooklength - I did inform the EA but they didn`t seem too concerned. It was 9" across the legs - it lost a leg in the untangling process, scuttled off & dropped back in.
A neighbouring angler enquired `what the %&%^*(% hell was that?`
I suppose in retrospect I should have killed it. They have an odd almost furry coating on the claws, just like a pair of mittens.
It would appear the buggers are everywhere, including swimming pools & Chinese vending machines!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_mitten_crab
 

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Having conducted dozens of inspections of merchant ship ballast tanks over the years I can confirm that they contain all kinds of creatures. The recent legislation to restrict discharge is however very much a case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.
 
There was another angler who had brought one in fishing at Acaster Malbis. But I guess it's more likely you would find one below the weir there!
 
They are in the Rivers Dee and Mersey too, I'm also informed that they've even made it into the Bridgewater Canal and Runcorn (via the Mersey).

Invasive plants and animals are a massive threat to our waterways, but on the whole no one really gives a sh*t and that include anglers!
 
Doing a quick google it transpires that these creatures spread in boat ballast and on the hulls of watercraft . Given that the Yorkshire Ouse has a lot of boat traffic this might explain this occurrence . If travelling by boat then a weir would not be a problem as the the crabs simply go through the lock on the boat .
 
if theyre in there then its a kiss of death for fish stocks and underbank erosion
nigh impossible to get rid of em and they breed faster than signals and do more damage:(
 
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