Lagoon Sand Shrimp (Gammarus insensibilis)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > crustacean > Crustacean |
| Red List Status: | (Not Relevant) [(not listed)(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Gammarus insensibilis |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | Stock, 1966 |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | (not listed) |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Population trend unknown, further work required to assess population status. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | This species has never been recorded breeding in England. Historical records that exist in the NBN atlas database are erroneous. |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | No |
| Justification: | Not relevant to marine species, maintenance of lagoon habitats and water quality would however be important to this species, not diversity, mosaics or succession. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 2. Biological status assessment exists |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Unknown |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Recovery potential likely to be low due to a combination of low dispersal ability and dependency on a habitat which would take decades or centuries to restore. Also, autecology poorly understood but very difficult to study. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Re-survey previously known sites and habitats predicted to be suitable (Humber and the Wash, south-east and south coasts of England, Severn and Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire.
Action targets: 2. Biological status assessment exists
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 20 sites
High priority sites: Sites and habitats predicted to be suitable (Humber and the Wash, south-east and south coasts of England, Severn and Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire.
Comments: Protected sites could be monitored as part of NE's monitoring work, surveys could consider other lagoonal species.
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.