Crayfishing in the waters of the City of Tampere
Crayfishing is permitted during the crayfishing season in the private waters of the City of Tampere in Lake Näsijärvi and Lake Pyhäjärvi. In other urban waters, crayfishing is prohibited. Crayfishing in the waters of the City of Tampere begins on 21 July at 12 noon and ends on 31 October. The regulations below must be complied with when crayfishing.
Crayfishing permits
Each household is permitted to use a maximum of 10 crayfish traps. Crayfishing permits are both household-specific and personal, which is why it is not permitted to use other peoples’ crayfish traps. Crayfishing with crayfishing traps is the only permitted method. The price for a crayfish unit is €5.00/trap.
Fishing permits are lake-specific. Permits for Lake Näsijärvi are not valid for Lake Pyhäjärvi and vice versa. Crayfishing in the Tammerkoski fishing area is not permitted.
400 trap permits are available for Lake Näsijärvi and 200 trap permits are available for Lake Pyhäjärvi. The total quotas have decreased due to a decline in crayfish stock. The sale of permits ends once the quotas have been filled.
Crayfishing in the waters of the City of Tampere is monitored. In order to assist the monitoring work, the traps must be marked with a trap label attached to the surface buoy. This means that the inspector does not need to lift the trap out of the water. Place a trap label on each trap, or if the traps are in a row, place the required number of labels at the end of the row. Remember to mark each trap with your name and contact information.
The waters of Lake Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi owned by the city are mainly areas used for water transport, and this should be taken into account when marking traps. Remember also to weight the traps correctly. When crayfishing, avoid anything that may cause unnecessary harm or disturbance to the waterfront owner or holder.
Minimum sizes
In Lake Pyhäjärvi, the minimum size for signal crayfish is 11 cm. In Lake Näsijärvi, the signal crayfish does not have a minimum size.
Signal crayfish in Lake Näsijärvi and Lake Pyhäjärvi carry crayfish plague
It is strictly forbidden to move crayfish from one water body to another. Additionally, traps must not be transferred from one water body to another without first being disinfected, not even from one signal crayfish water to another nor from the upstream Pyhäjärvi to the downstream Näsijärvi. Crayfish plague manifests on crayfish as black spots, but even an outwardly healthy-looking signal crayfish carries plague spores. The common crayfish indigenous to Finland cannot withstand crayfish plague, so it dies if it gets infected. Crayfish plague does not pose a risk to humans, and crayfish carrying it are safe to eat.
Prevent the spread of crayfish plague
Crayfish plague and the spread of signal crayfish are the greatest threat to the highly endangered common crayfish. By their actions, each crayfish catcher can help to prevent the spread of crayfish plague by disinfecting, drying or freezing all equipment used to catch crayfish before transferring it between different parts of a water system or into another water system. Baits should be taken from the same water system in which one intends to catch crayfish. If the baits are taken from elsewhere, they must be frozen for 3 days before use.
It should also be remembered that crayfish can only be kept in keepnets in the part of the water body where they were caught. Signal crayfish spread crayfish plague, so they must not under any circumstances be transferred from one water system to another or introduced into water systems. The introduction of common crayfish also always requires a permit.