Common Crayfish sales illegal in washington state?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
N

N.C.

Gambusia
MFK Member
Aug 6, 2008
449
0
16
granite falls washington
I was in a lfs today just pickin up some food for my monsters when i came across the biggest common crayfish i had ever seen, they had it in there hugh feeder tank. i asked if they would sell it to me and the sales person said she couldnt because the sale of COMMON CRAYFISH is no longer permitted in washington state due to the fact that people were releasing them into ponds, lakes and streams. I brought up the point that crayfish are native to our area anyway. she didnt have an awnser to that.....so my question is has anyone else heard of this law? i searched the net for awnsers but came up with nothing.:screwy:
 
I'm not familiar with the laws in Washington State, but I'm not surprised it would be illegal. There are many species of crayfish, and there are many instances of certain crayfish species becoming invasive in areas where they are not native. I'm not sure what is being sold as "common crayfish" in your petstore, but it is almost certainly not one of your native Pacifastacus species.
 
yeah im sure your right the term common anything is used way too much in our hobby. i have searched website after website but just cant find anything on the subject
 
http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/ans/identif...yingCollectingNonnativeCrayfishWashington.pdf

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/ans/ans_wac.pdf

WAC 220-12-090 Classification_-Nonnative aquatic animal species.
(1) Prohibited aquatic animal species. The following species are classified as prohibited aquatic animal species:
(a) Amphibians:
(i) Family Pipidae: African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis.
(ii) Family Ranidae: Bull frog, Rana catesbeiana.
(b) Crustaceans:
(i) Family Cercopagidae:
(A) Fish hook water flea, Cercopagis pengoi.
(B) Spiny water flea, Bythotrephes cederstroemi.
(ii) Family Grapsidae: Mitten crabs: All members of the
genus Erochier.
(iii) Family Cambaridae:
(A) Red swamp crawfish, Procambarus clarkii.
(B) Rusty crawfish, Orconectes rusticus.
Click to expand...
 
Not surprising, those two are among the more important invaders. P. clarki is established in CA as well as various places in the northeast. Of course, the northwestern native Pacifastacus leniusculus is an invasive pest in Europe. People always want to bring in some exotic, their local critters are never good enough for them. :D
 
But the "common crayfish" isn't native to WA. Cambarus bartonii (and the sub-species) is what the common name "common crayfish" belongs to. Occassionally, I see Astacus species fall under that name, but that's not native, either.

But anyway, maybe WA is like some other areas in which the sale of native species is not permitted (can't cite anything, I've only glossed over other websites, threads, etc and never really paid attention... may not even be a real law)? Or it's a recent addition, Red Claws (Cherax quad.) are supposedly illegal in WA but I rarely see them mentioned on sites. *shrugs*

Why don't they just give it to you if they can't sell it? What are they going to do with it? My LFS hands off natives to me for free all the time, they're not "exotic" enough to sell, heh.

Edit: Can you go back and have them provide you documentation of them no longer being permitted? Or a law, admentment, etc name so you can look up what they're saying? They had to pick it up from somewhere...
 
its all all good i have founf a lfs that still sells them...so i bought up all they had and put them in a 29 gal. now i just need to figure out how to breed them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom