Crayfish Survey Volunteer

Do you want to be involved in helping to protect the white-clawed crayfish, the UK’s only native freshwater crayfish? Do you fancy helping us to survey river catchments to help us better understand their distribution and help out at events to champion this native crayfish? If so, then this role will be perfect for you!

Unfortunately the white-clawed crayfish has seen a dramatic decline across the country, mainly due to the introduction of the invasive signal crayfish and the crayfish plague it carries. North Yorkshire is one of the last strongholds for the endangered species, and so the North Yorkshire Crayfish Forum was set up in 2019 to develop a strategy to protect and preserve our local populations and the forum is now Yorkshire wide.

It is vital that we understand the distribution of the 2 species of crayfish (both the native white-clawed crayfish and invasive signal crayfish) in Yorkshire, with much of the available data for them being outdated and likely inaccurate. We are therefore recruiting Crayfish Survey Volunteers to help us survey 5 target river catchments (Derwent, Swale, Nidd, Ure and Foss), this will allow us to better understand the species distribution and help identify key areas where proactive work needs to be carried out to protect white-clawed crayfish populations!

Unfortunately, the white-clawed crayfish has seen a dramatic decline across the country, mainly due to the introduction of the invasive signal crayfish and the crayfish plague it carries. North Yorkshire is one of the last strongholds for the endangered species, and so the Yorkshire Crayfish Forum was set up in 2019 to develop a strategy to protect and preserve our local populations and is now Yorkshire-wide.

We are looking for volunteers to join us on either a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday 3-4 times per month to help us with these surveys. 

To undertake this role you will need to complete essential training which will help you to survey the crayfish correctly. Training dates to be confirmed but plenty of notice will be provided