Kayakers and Biosecurity - New SCA Guidelines

New guidelines on biosecurity and dealing with invasive, non-native species (nasties) have been issued by the Scottish Canoe Association.


Staggering amounts of money is being spent dealing with these problems. It's costing the Scottish economy (ie - us!) over £500m a year, and up to £6bn for the whole of the UK.

One million, non-native North American Signal Crayfish were reportedly removed recently from Loch Ken by the Galloway Fisheries Trust.

What to do? Simples. “The most simple and effective step that any paddler can do to reduce his or her risk to biosecurity is to drain your boat every time you leave the water." says Mike Dales, the Access and Environment bloke at the SCA. "We encourage every paddler to spend an hour looking at the advice on our website, to learn more about this issue.” SCA

We're fortunate to have statuatory rights of access in Scotland, and with them comes responsibilities. This is one such responsibility we'd be stupid to ignore.