\n The charity Action for River Kennet has warned people to be aware of a non-native Demon shrimp after two of this crustacean type were found in the river near Holy Brook in Reading earlier this month.\n<\/p>\n
\n This sort of shrimp can cause several problems for local wildlife as it directly competes with and preys upon native freshwater shrimp and other native freshwater invertebrates.\n<\/p>\n
\n They carry non-native parasites, causing disease, and disrupt the native food chain by consuming fish eggs and fry which damages fish stocks.\n<\/p>\n
\n An ARK spokesperson said: \u201cWe’re asking river and other watercourse users to practice Check Clean Dry to slow the spread of the invasive non-native Demon shrimp.\n<\/p>\n
\n Demon shrimp. (Image: ARK – Action for the River Kennett.)\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThey are less efficient than our native shrimp at processing leaf litter, when they displace native shrimp the recycling slows and significantly degrades water and habitat quality.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThey can survive for days out of water and can easily be spread from one river to another.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf you’re a water course user, please Check Clean Dry to make sure you and your equipment\/kit\/river gear does not contribute to the spread.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThank you to our eagle eyed trained ARK riverfly monitors who spotted the Demon shrimp. We will be reporting it to the Riverfly Partnership and the Environment Agency.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The Check Clean Dry guidance highlights the need to thoroughly dry all equipment and clothing after activities on or in the water.\n<\/p>\n
\n The shrimp, originally from the Black Sea, are believed to have travelled to the UK attached to boat hulls before being spread locally by kayakers and anglers unaware of their presence.\n<\/p>\n
\n The two cones on the demon shrimp show that it is different to native shrimp found around the country.\n<\/p>\n
\n ARK\u2019s education and outreach manager Anna Forbes told the BBC: \u201cCheck, Clean, Dry is really important.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cDemon shrimp eat little fish, fish eggs, are less effective at cleaning the water than native species and are highly aggressive. They don’t belong in the mix.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Garden and outdoor manager Piers Horry added that once invasive species get settled in an environment they are difficult to remove.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “We’ve tried to eradicate them but we were surprised how quickly that population boomed [after the damage was repaired].\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe’re looking into other methods, such as potentially introducing predators, to address the problem.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Becoming a local action group can also help and there is lots of support from authorities like the Environment Agency.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The charity Action for River Kennet has warned people to be aware of a non-native Demon shrimp after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-781726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781726","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=781726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}