THE battle against invading American signal crayfish is being stepped up in one of Scotland's biggest lochs.
Millions of crayfish have infested picturesque Loch Ken, north of Castle Douglas in Dumfries and Galloway, and efforts to control their numbers have failed.
Now thousands of European eels, which eat crayfish, are being introduced into a river that runs into the loch in the hope that they will reduce the population.
Fishing in the loch, the biggest in the south of Scotland, has been badly hit by the infestation of the American crayfish, costing the region tens of thousands of pounds.
The Galloway Fisheries Trust, which is behind the project to introduce the baby eels, believes that once they are fully grown the eels will leave the River Dee for the loch, where they are expected to devour large numbers of crayfish.
Rownan Armstrong, a biologist with the Galloway Fisheries Trust, said: "The eels are still young and it will take time for them to grow."
The loch and the River Dee used to be home to a healthy population of the eels, but following the construction of Tongland Dam, near Kirkcudbright, the numbers fell dramatically.
But now eels are being trapped below the dam and are being transported above it and placed in small burns in the lower river.
A Scottish Government-backed cull of the invading crayfish resulted in the deaths of two million two years ago, but it has made little impression on the fast-growing American species, which was introduced to the United Kingdom 20 years ago.
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/nature/Trust-turns-to-eels-in.6850154.jp
Now thousands of European eels, which eat crayfish, are being introduced into a river that runs into the loch in the hope that they will reduce the population.
Fishing in the loch, the biggest in the south of Scotland, has been badly hit by the infestation of the American crayfish, costing the region tens of thousands of pounds.
The Galloway Fisheries Trust, which is behind the project to introduce the baby eels, believes that once they are fully grown the eels will leave the River Dee for the loch, where they are expected to devour large numbers of crayfish.
Rownan Armstrong, a biologist with the Galloway Fisheries Trust, said: "The eels are still young and it will take time for them to grow."
The loch and the River Dee used to be home to a healthy population of the eels, but following the construction of Tongland Dam, near Kirkcudbright, the numbers fell dramatically.
But now eels are being trapped below the dam and are being transported above it and placed in small burns in the lower river.
A Scottish Government-backed cull of the invading crayfish resulted in the deaths of two million two years ago, but it has made little impression on the fast-growing American species, which was introduced to the United Kingdom 20 years ago.
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/nature/Trust-turns-to-eels-in.6850154.jp
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