Crawfish near the wreck of the Mohegan
CRITTER CONFIDENTIAL
Crawfish
( or spiny lobster )
Palinurus elephas
Paul Naylor investigates the resurgence of crawfish off the South Coast of England in recent years
It had been a long time coming but there it was looking back at me , the unmistakeable face of a crawfish behind those uniquely massive antennae . The crustacean was nicely positioned in a rocky crevice and , after taking a few photos and making some complex and indecipherable signals to my buddy about what we ’ d seen , we moved on . This was at Babbacombe in the spring and the place was rich with signs of the season including the recently laid eggs of catsharks , cuttlefish , blennies and nudibranchs , but that glimpse of a crawfish was the undisputable highlight of my dive . Changing afterwards , I explained my excited gesticulations to my buddy , who was my son Sam . The last time I ’ d seen a crawfish was 1991 I told him , eight years before he was born !
The long wait was because these wonderful animals had been brought to extinction in many locations due to massive overfishing by netting and diving . Whip-like movements of those long , armoured antennae can presumably deter some natural predators , but they do nothing against those armed with tangle nets or collecting bags ; this vulnerability exacerbated by the way large
Crawfish on the wreck of the Mohegan , Cornwall
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