{"id":550590,"date":"2026-04-25T21:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T21:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/550590\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T21:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T21:01:08","slug":"my-fruitless-crayfish-search-along-the-huddersfield-canal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/550590\/","title":{"rendered":"My fruitless crayfish search along the Huddersfield Canal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n This time last year, The Oldham Times reported on the finding of an American signal crayfish<\/a> and there have been several sightings since then.\n<\/p>\n

\n Curious to spot one myself, I decided to take a stroll along the Huddersfield Canal and River Thame to see what I could find.\n<\/p>\n

\n The weather was perfect for a walk, and the route offered peaceful views and plenty of other wildlife, with ducks, geese and even the odd squirrel spotted.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"SignalThe crayfish found last year (Image: Dominic Bamber)\n<\/p>\n

\n I parked at King George Playing Fields car park and headed up to the Huddersfield Canal first.\n<\/p>\n

\n I walked for about 20 minutes in one direction along the canal before looping back to my starting point and heading the other way for another 20 minutes.\n<\/p>\n

\n While I could see into the few shallow parts of the canal, much of the water was too deep to spot anything below the surface.\n<\/p>\n

\n Part of the river I searched (Image: NQ)\n<\/p>\n

\n I then explored the river as far as I could, stopping only when the path ended.\n<\/p>\n

\n Hoping for better luck near the stepping stones in Uppermill Park, I peered into the water but saw nothing unusual.\n<\/p>\n

\n I must have looked a bit weird, to be honest, walking up and down with my eyes glued to the water.\n<\/p>\n

\n Especially so when I risked jumping down onto the rocky riverbank and crawled under the bridge which carries Uppermill High Street above the river.\n<\/p>\n

\n Despite my efforts, no crayfish made an appearance during my walk.\n<\/p>\n

\n The bridge I went looking under (Image: Google)\n<\/p>\n

\n That said, it was a relaxing outing with beautiful scenery, even if it didn\u2019t result in a sighting.\n<\/p>\n

\n Since then, I\u2019ve looked through social media posts about past crayfish discoveries and made a list of suggested spotting locations.\n<\/p>\n

\n I\u2019ll be heading to those spots on my next outing in the hope of better luck.\n<\/p>\n

\n River Thame (Image: NQ)\n<\/p>\n

\n For those unfamiliar, the signal crayfish is an invasive species that has caused serious environmental damage across the UK.\n<\/p>\n

\n While I didn’t manage to spot any, there’s still some weight to the claims they can be found, considering in the two years I have worked at The Oldham Times, there have been three sightings we’ve reported on.\n<\/p>\n

\n The one last April was the first, followed by one discovered during an attempt to clean up the River Beal<\/a> in September, and then another in October, spotted by children at the same stepping stones<\/a> I looked at.\n<\/p>\n

\n Before these, one was also found in Daisy Nook Country Park<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n According to the Canal and River Trust (CRT), signal crayfish are larger and more aggressive than the native white-clawed crayfish.\n<\/p>\n

\n These red-brown crustaceans, identified by a white or turquoise mark near the claw hinge, are present as England’s native crayfish are in a state of fast decline, with their numbers having reduced by more than 50 per cent since the 1970s.\n<\/p>\n

\n An American signal crayfish in the River Tame (Image: Supplied)\n<\/p>\n

\n Originally introduced from North America in the 1960s to be farmed for restaurants, signal crayfish escaped into the wild and quickly spread through British waterways.\n<\/p>\n

\n The CRT warns that signal crayfish can burrow up to two metres into banks, causing severe erosion and potentially leading to canal collapses.\n<\/p>\n

\n They also pose a direct threat to native wildlife.\n<\/p>\n

\n The creature, which is thought to be an American (Image: Cllr Sarah Hince)\n<\/p>\n

\n The CRT said: “The American signal is larger and more aggressive, outcompeting its docile cousin for habitat and preying on its young.\n<\/p>\n

\n “It also carries a fungal disease called ‘crayfish plague’, which is fatal for the white-clawed, and can be spread by wet footwear and equipment.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Armed with my trusty list of locations and with another walk on the schedule, I\u2019m determined to spot one of these invasive crustaceans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This time last year, The Oldham Times reported on the finding of an American signal crayfish and there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-550590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-unitedkingdom","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}