Environment Agency white-clawed crayfish Survey of the River Lune Catchment 2004

Quality Control

Paul Bradley is acknowledged as an expert with regards to white-clawed crayfish and is able to identify them even at a very small size. This is a difficult task for non-experts. Works were carried out under licence from English Nature (now Natural England). Confidence in the data is very high.

Method steps

1. This data was collected by ecologists working for the Environment Agency. Locations were selected initially based on water chemistry, habitat and location near to a confluence. Further survey sites were then picked to fill in the gaps to ensure coverage of smaller tributaries in addition to larger watercourses. Survey sites were then sampled using standard sampling methodologies. The search effort was increased from the standard 50 refuges per site to 250 refuges per site.

The survey covered the entire River Lune catchment.