Louisiana’s crawfish industry could be in trouble if the federal government takes one nonprofit’s advice to regulate the red swamp crawfish.
As The Advertiser reports, the Center of Invasive Species Prevention recently petitioned the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to add the procambarus clarkii, better known as the red swamp crawfish or Louisiana crawfish, to the injurious wildlife list.
In the petition, the CISP says the red swamp crawfish and 42 other species don’t provide “any essential economic or other benefits” that outweigh their current and potential harm to the United States. The Fish & Wildlife Service could impose punishment on those who buy, sell or trade red swamp crawfish if the species is added to the list.
Outgoing U.S. Sen. David Vitter has sent a letter to the Fish & Wildlife Service urging the agency to reject the petition. “Ridiculously,” Vitter wrote in the letter, “the inclusion of the red swamp crawfish on the list of injurious wildlife would result in the arrest and prosecution of thousands of Louisiana business owners.”
Peter Jenkins, president of the CISP, says he doesn’t intend to harm the Louisiana crawfish industry. “We don’t want to be a threat to the crawfish producers there. We don’t want to upset them,” he says. “We just want the federal government to take a look at these invasive species.”
While crawfish are native and welcome in Louisiana, they have become a nuisance to bodies of water across the United States and beyond. They outcompete native crawfish and rapidly take over habitats where they invade, according to the FWS.
