Demon shrimp on the march

Dr Nick Everall (Aquascience Consultancy Ltd) and the Riverfly Partnership reports a recent find on the River Churnet in Staffordshire of an invasive non-native species, the demon shrimp, Dikerogammarus haemobaphes. This comes hot-on-the-heels of a report from South Cumbria Rivers Trust, of both zebra mussels and demon shrimp at Glasson Dock in Lancashire at the bottom end of the River Lune.

The ecological significance of the most recent find is not yet clear, nor how it got into the Churnet. First reported in the Severn & Thames in 2012 by the Environment Agency, research on the ecological impacts of demon shrimp has been ongoing since. WTT’s Research & Conservation Officer, Prof Jon Grey is the lead supervisor of a PhD student based at Queen Mary University of London: http://​www​.sbcs​.qmul​.ac​.uk/​s​t​a​f​f​/​c​h​i​e​n​f​a​n​l​i​u​.html

It is perhaps another timely reminder of the need for biosecurity. There’s plenty of practical advice on the WTT website, including the Check, Clean, Dry campaign at https://​www​.wildtrout​.org/​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​b​i​o​s​e​c​urity

Images and more info on both killer and demon shrimp can be found on the pages of the GB Non-Native Species Secretariat, here: http://​www​.non​na​tivespecies​.org/​a​l​e​r​t​s​/​i​n​d​e​x​.​c​f​m​?id=3