Oregon
Invasive crayfish found in Oregon for the first time
The Northern crayfish will be recognized by the barnacle-like bumps on its claws. Shade cannot be used to differentiate crayfish species.
Michael Parker
The Oregon Division of Fish and Wildlife says it’s gotten stories of the invasive Northern crayfish discovered within the Ashland Canal. This species is native to the Midwest, however has additionally been present in California and Washington.
Rick Boatner with the Oregon Division of Fish and Wildlife suspects the crayfish have been launched by a faculty group or pet proprietor who dumped them into the canal. He says these crayfish will compete with native species for a similar habitat.
“It’d be much like within the 80s [when] Rusty crayfish acquired launched into the John Day river system,” he says. “And now they’re the dominant crayfish species within the John Day Basin.”
Northern crayfish are extra aggressive than others and will find yourself consuming endangered salmon and steelhead eggs.
ODFW is now engaged on figuring out their vary to allow them to work out easy methods to lure them.
“I’m not tremendous assured that we’d get all of them that manner,” Boatner says. “Granted it would management them, but when we are saying we utterly eradicate them, that’s type of a distinct story.”
ODFW should work with landowners alongside the canal to permit them to survey and lure the crayfish. Boatner says they’ll’t use poison to kill the crayfish, for the reason that canal feeds into the Bear Creek, a tributary of the Rogue River.
The canal does dry up for a lot of the yr. Boatner says he’s optimistic that may assist maintain them from spreading. However crayfish are resilient. They’ll burrow into mud to attend for water and even stroll throughout land to seek out one other physique of water.
Boatner says his group does outreach with colleges to attempt to keep away from introduction of invasive species. Colleges and people can face penalties or civil fines for releasing invasive species and importing non-native crayfish to Oregon requires a allow.
Anybody who spots a doable invasive crayfish ought to take a transparent, top-down image and ship it to the Oregon Invasive Hotline.
Boatner expects it might take a number of years to manage or eradicate them, relying on how far they’ve already unfold.