Crayfish

Mike and Katie have set up a new business, trapping crayfish!
Rather like the grey squirrel, American Signal Crayfish have invaded the UK. Over the last decade or so a few crayfish that escaped from commercial fisheries have multiplied into many thousands and have wiped out the native British crayfish in the South of England. The Environment Agency consider them a major ecological pest and it is illegal to spread them - so if you catch one, you can't throw it back in the river!  Needless to say they are much larger than their British cousins and are really good to eat.  Mike has a licence from the Environment Agency to trap them in all the local rivers and has imported a load of fish traps from Sweden.

As the water is getting warmer so the catch is increasing. At times he is catching up to 50kgs a week. His market is slowly expanding with such prestigious places as The Ritz, Le Manoir au'quatre saisons etc all showing an interest. Needless to say we hope they'll make a fortune!

They are really delicious and amazingly little known!  Just click on the thumbnails to get a full size blow up.

The River Kennet

Mike lifting a trap

About 6 kgs of crayfish

Mike and Sassy

Katie and Mike loading up the Toyota

Back at the Farm

Inside a tank

Camouflage netting keeps the sun off

Packing station with Mike's cousin Tom

Packing Stage 1

Packing Stage 2

Packing Stage 3

Seriously large crayfish!

Ready for market

Crayfish and Asparagus and a nice glass of Sancerre!

The bait they use is Tesco's frozen chicken legs!

The crays are kept in these large black tanks for a few days to clean them. They have fresh spring water pumped through the tanks, since they don't like chlorine

The two blue balls are connected to the aerators

The insulated boxes hold about 3 to 4 kgs each and a layer of ice is placed on the bottom.

Next a layer of damp hessian is placed over the ice.

One or two (depending upon the size) layers of crayfish are then placed in the box, seperated by more damp hessian.

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The River Kennet