THOUSANDS of a protected species of crayfish in the River Ribble are doomed to die from a plague infection.

But environment watchers are working all out to try to save a small proportion of the river's crayfish populations.

Teams of rescuers are preparing to remove about 2,000 of the native white-clawed crayfish from the river in an effort to stop the spread of the fungal infection which could wipe out the species from the Ribble.

The uninfected crayfish will be hand-picked out of the river and put in holding tanks for up to a year until the spores of the disease have washed themselves out of the area.

It will be a back-breaking operation undertaken by Environment Agency officers, anglers and river bailiffs.

But the plague will mean the death of up to hundreds of thousands of the crayfish.

The plague was detected purely by chance when an environment researcher was worker in the area.

He noticed some dead crayfish, sent samples of the the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and determined that the fungal spores of the disease were present.

Environment Agency ecology team leader Neil Guthrie said: "We don't know exactly how the infection was brought to the Ribble but it was probably on wet angling gear that had been used in infected water.

"The spores only survive on wet surfaces and dried waders and other equipment will not pass the spores on."