Killer Shrimp at Grafham Water
Below the surface of the peaceful Grafham Water reservoir in Huntingdon lurks a voracious Killer Shrimp.
It's an invasive species that takes over and wipes out local species to the point of a local extinction.
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Source: Dikerogammarus villosus. Photo by S. Giesen (1998).
Date 26 May 2004, 09:45
Source 1030
Author NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory
Whats the problem?
Grafham Water is a man made reservoir for drinking water. Built in the 1960's it quickly attracted a lot of wildlife, some of which are very rare.
The reservoir has nationally important numbers of wintering great crested grebes, tufted ducks and coots, and of moulting mute swans in late summer. A pond has a population of the nationally uncommon warty newt.
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafham_Water
Grafham Water is also very popular with the watersports community. Sailing kayaking etc.
Next time you go sailing consider what lies beneath.
Whats the solution?
Catch as many Killer Shrimp as you can and throw them on the BBQ.
This is evolution at work but sometimes we (humans) feel that we have to intervene to protect a rare species.
What do you think?
Have a great day folks!
Seems we have so many invasive species. There are US crayfish too that escaped from somewhere. You can eat those too. Latest I heard about is raccoon dogs, but those are a bit bigger.
Ecosystems can be finely balanced and bringing in new species that out-compete existing ones messes it up. They can also bring new diseases and may not have natural predators. See what happened with cane toads in Australia.
Hi Steve, yep it's a real problem but luckily this species is confined to Grafham Water...so far. I seem to recall that there was a bounty on the US Crayfish at one time. £0.50 for every Crayfish caught! It could be all scuttle butt of course. Throw 'em on the barbi I say.
I was just talking to someone who was able to catch US signal crayfish near them and cooked a fair few.
Apparently they are pretty tasty. One way to control them...eat them. They are quite big. Like a small lobster?
I am volunteering to eat as many as they can ship to me. I know this is a huge commitment, but I am willing to do what it takes :D