{"id":73589,"date":"2016-08-26T13:15:02","date_gmt":"2016-08-26T13:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=85066cf6a4a0c23fecd22c0cc9409ce2"},"modified":"2016-08-26T13:15:02","modified_gmt":"2016-08-26T13:15:02","slug":"press-release-illegal-crayfish-traps-recovered-from-north-east-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=73589","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Illegal crayfish traps recovered from North East river"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Environment Agency fisheries officers are investigating after four illegal crayfish traps were recovered from the River Wear.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday night, Fisheries Enforcement Officers on patrol acted on information about four traps in the river at Shincliffe, County Durham.<\/p>\n<p>They seized them and are now carrying out further enquiries.<\/p>\n<p>Now experts are reminding people that there is a ban on trapping crayfish in the North East to protect the native population of white clawed crayfish.<\/p>\n<p>The invasive American signal crayfish carries a fungal disease which is deadly to the native population.<\/p>\n<p>Signal crayfish eat their own young, which means if adults are trapped and removed there aren\u2019t enough to control the population, which can lead to increases in numbers.<\/p>\n<p>Unregulated trapping can also lead to people spreading the disease to areas where the white clawed crayfish still populate, and illegal traps can be a danger to other wildlife and protected species.<\/p>\n<p>Only a handful of trapping requests are granted in the North East, and that\u2019s for research purposes.<\/p>\n<p>Kev Summerson, Fisheries Enforcement Technical Specialist for the North East, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>There are still populations of our indigenous white clawed crayfish in North East rivers, and this is a protected species which we work hard to safeguard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Fishing or trapping crayfish in our rivers is illegal and people need to be aware that anyone involved in such activity will potentially face enforcement action.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Anyone who uses our waterways for work, activities or sports is asked to follow Check Clean Dry:<\/p>\n<p>Check &#8211; check your equipment and clothing for living organisms. Pay particular attention to areas that are damp or hard to inspect.<\/p>\n<p>Clean &#8211; clean and wash all equipment, footwear and clothes thoroughly. If you do come across any organisms, leave them at the water body where you found them.<\/p>\n<p>Dry &#8211; Dry all equipment and clothing &#8211; some species can live for many days in moist conditions. Make sure you don\u2019t transfer water elsewhere.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Environment Agency fisheries officers remove four traps from the River Wear in County Durham.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73589"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73589\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}