Island invaded by crabs the size of dinner plates
COUNCIL HAS BANNED LONDONERS FROM VISITING CHISWICK EYOT
ISLANDS are scattered like little jewels up and down the River Thames.
Some are occupied by whole villages, others are home to small communities of houseboats and house communities of creatives, eccentrics and loners.
There are also a few that are completely uninhabited and people are actually barred from going there.
One such place is Chiswick Eyot. Overlooked by Chiswick Mall, the island is some 3.2 acres in size.
It marks the halfway point in the Oxford-Cambridge boat race and a green pole standing beside the island is used to keep track of rowers’ timings.
People are now banned from setting foot here unless they sign up for special tours because it is being cultivated as a nature reserve and is inhabited by swans and willow trees.
Yet, as always, people love to break rules, and in 2010 a man called Nick told the BBC he had been living a Robinson Crusoestyle life here, camping out on the island. Still, Hounslow Council apparently took a look and claimed there were no signs of habitation there.
According to the Hidden London website, flint tools and Neolithic and Roman pottery have been discovered on Chiswick Eyot, which may mean there was once a small settlement here.
During the industrial revolution the island was used for growing grass and osiers – reeds used for making baskets – which were used in the markets at Chiswick.
The naturalist CJ Cornish wrote in 1902 that the river bank of Chiswick Mall beside the island had once been a “famous fishery”.
He claimed the last ever salmon in the Thames had been caught there in 1812.
However, there are two things people really need to know about this lovely little island.
One it is shrinking, and two it is being invaded by crabs that can grow as large as dinner plates.
Yes it is true – the part of the island that used to lie within the borough of Hammersmith has since slipped into the Thames.
According to the Chiswick Calendar website, the Old Chiswick Protection Society puts out calls each year for volunteers to help shore up the island using bundles of cut willow branches.
The Chinese Mitten Crab appears to have first come to the area in the 1930s, after clinging to the hulls of international ships.
The crabs burrow into the muddy banks and create complex, interconnected burrows.
The society says the consequences for Chiswick Eyot are potentially disastrous, as the crabs’ burrowing loosens the mud around the island, and when the tide flows in and out the earth is washed away, steadily eroding the island over time.
The Natural History Museum is even asking members of the public to report sightings of the Chinese mitten crab, a species which is listed as one of the world’s worse invasive species.
Other than damaging river banks, they cause numerous other problems to areas that they occupy such as damaging fishing gear, blocking intake streams from rivers and reservoirs, modifying natural habitats and competing with native species.
The crabs can grow to the size of a dinner plate.
They have distinctive claws that make them appear furry and they have a squarish body with four spines.