Louisiana’s crawfish industry is safe for now from increased federal regulation.
The Center of Invasive Species Prevention has announced that it has withdrawn a request to increase regulations on the state’s most popular species of crawfish, The Advertiser reports.
The organization petitioned the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service earlier this year to add the procambarus clarkii, better known as the red swamp crawfish or Louisiana crawfish, to the injurious wildlife list.
U.S. Sen. David Vitter was among those who openly opposed the petition, saying the regulation would harm Louisiana’s crawfish industry. The resulting media coverage also led to public outcry this week.
Now, Peter T. Jenkins, president of the Center of Invasive Species Prevention, says he plans to amend the petition.
“We will be submitting an amended petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service deleting the red swamp crayfish and doing further analysis on it. We will not be doing any more interviews on this topic,” Jenkins says in an emailed statement to The Advertiser.
