Killer Shrimps!!!

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Michael Brigg
Posts: 1663
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2007 7:11 pm
Location: Gosport, UK

Killer Shrimps!!!

Post by Michael Brigg »

This is not a hoax.

Just came across this on the Canoe site. It seems that our own JimC also has something of an expertise on the matter.

Is this likely to affect travellers, and might it drive us all Lemming like into the sea??
For those who may not have heard, a foreign shrimp that kills native UK water life has been found for the first time in the UK in Grapham Water where there is now a 'lock down' of boats in and out of the club. A National 12 Open this weekend was cancelled but boats already stored within the club grounds are still able to be sailed, but not taken from the club. In an attempt to protect native wild life, other lakes, at least in the Midlands, are being checked to discover if the Graham killer shrimps are part of a wider problem. The shrimps could be spread from lake to lake on boats or within the open spaces of trolleys, or naturally by birds.
And from JimC:-
Tell you what Colin, as it happens the Gammaridae is something I know a little about from my college days: would you believe that you can plot the salinity gradient of a estuary or stream joining a beach by the different species of gammarids... I'll inspect the shrimps on the beach before we launch and let you all know! Its something the sea sailors don't need to worry about BTW, the thing is pretty salt water tolerant but, like me, doesn't care for the real thing!
...and
No, shrimps it is... Its a species of amphipod shrimp, which are the little half moon shaped shrimps you will see in freshwater, on the beach hopping round in seaweed and in streams. However this particular species http://el.erdc.usace.army.mil/ansrp/dik ... llosus.pdf has apparrently been spreading from the east (red peril? was it a communist plot - maybe they were genetically engineered by the Soviet Union) and is a very effective predator which has wiped out native species of gammarus in the Rhine...
So I guess we'd best get into training.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX2Ief4kjrI&feature=fvw
Michael Brigg
Pat
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Joined: Mon Sep 27, 2004 1:42 pm
Location: West Wiltshire (Wessex)

Re: Killer Shrimps!!!

Post by Pat »

Yes I saw that as it was a joint inland champs between the Larks and the Nat 12s and was cancelled at short notice.
Grafham have now lifted the ban on boat movements, but put strict rules about washing down and boats being inspected before being allowed off site and that the number of shrimps found has to be counted!.

Look out Nessa - you could be next.
Nessa
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Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 3:16 pm
Location: East Angular

Re: Killer Shrimps!!!

Post by Nessa »

yes, Grafham is pretty well infested with the blighters. You can wade out a little, lift a rock and there they are. I have seen some 'in the flesh' so to speak, and peer anxiously into the water at Hunts, but no sighting so far I'm glad to say.

Apparently they do turn pink when you boil them, but are too crunchy to be enjoyable... :twisted:
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