Posted on 12/26/2004 8:29:16 PM PST by bayourod
You'd think that a country that has elevated snails and frogs to a delicacy wouldn't have a problem with some good ol' crawfish.
Yet France is struggling, not in the kitchen but out in the wild: Beaucoup crawfish are killing frogs, destroying sensitive wetland plants and generally wreaking environmental havoc.
The prolific Louisiana Red Swamp crawfish, which can lay up to 750 eggs at one time and can reproduce nine months of the year, is thought to have escaped into wetland areas of France in 1976. It's been downhill from there.
"The Louisiana crawfish eats all the aquatic plants in the marsh," said Jean-Marc Thirion, scientific adviser to Nature Environnement 17, an environmental group based in Charente-Maritime, a department on France's central Atlantic coast. "Without the aquatic plants, the water of the marsh is opaque and the sunlight can't pass through," making it difficult for aquatic life to survive.
The Louisiana crawfish is disrupting breeding areas for frogs and other amphibians, he said, as well as having more subtle effects on other wildlife.
"When the Louisiana crawfish is present in the amphibian laying site — pool, pond or marsh — we have observed different mutilations of amphibians: cut skin, leg amputations," he said. "When the Louisiana crawfish population is established after a few years in the same site, we note the extinction of amphibian species."
Even more troubling and far-reaching is the insidious revenge the crawfish is taking on its predators.
For instance, Thirion said, one scientist has reported malformed young in gray heron that have begun to feed exclusively on the crawfish.
Scientists in Spain have reported that astaxanthin, the reddish-orange pigment in the shell and body that gives the Louisiana crawfish its name, is turning the skin of baby white storks an orange color that could be disturbing to their parents, raising concerns about nesting success.
The pigment also is causing slight differences in the coloring of the legs and beaks of adult storks, scientists say. The vibrant colors of birds are used to attract the opposite sex, and the scientists are concerned that the differences could be affecting their long-term reproduction.
According to Catherine Souty-Grosset, a biologist at the University of Poitiers and a founding member of Craynet, a network of European aquatic crawfish researchers, the Louisiana crawfish has become the most dangerous of a handful of invasive species because it is spreading so rapidly.
It has been found all along France's Atlantic coast and throughout the basin of the Loire River, and is expected to spread along another half-dozen rivers in a few years.
Souty-Grosset says several proposals for exterminating the invader have drawbacks.
Chemicals able to kill the tough crawfish harm other species. Mechanical removal is labor-intensive and too expensive, and while commercial fishing seems to be catching on in Charente-Maritime, she said, transporting live crawfish out of the department is prohibited.
To comply with the law, put in place to prevent the spread of invasive crawfish, "the ideal solution is the transformation on the spot of crawfish into preserved products," she said.
Yummers!!
You got a deal!
Ms.B
Keep in mind this isn't based on how the (mostly) good people of Arkansas think but on how the French feel about things. They still want what Napoleon sold. And alas there are rare throwbacks. Lots of flying Razorbacks before you promoted that very French acting governor out of the state. Until you shoot down the rest and barbecue them I'm afraid you are stuck with the "mostly."
There you go! And the blue ones think we are stuck in stupidmatic, dumbasses, we're just loving life, having fun and just getting started!!!!!! Make Way!!!!!!!!!!!
You can lead the French to craydaddies but can you make them suck the heads?? I'll take all they want to give me up here in Alaska. We used to buy 50 pound sacks for 20 bucks before they got popular. Now I can't afford to eat what used to be comman fare.
Crawdads are best taken illegally....
Wait till they find out that all crawfish upon closer inspection wear veils! They get caught in our teeth when we suck the heads down here.
Time to import the Largemouth Bass :-)
After I replied I thought, and I hoped I didn't offend any one from Arkansas.; that was not my intention. I was just slapped by the term French Arkansas. It was as if i coined the oxymoron Copenhagen Rawanda.
The Gov you refer to, is that Edween, if so check again, he is back in the state, somewhere's north of Alexandria or thereabouts.
Vent YOUR guts and let the hair go with the hide, don't post an anime here!!! democratic underground sop!
Poor FROGS!
Been looking for your recipe, but it doesn't seem to be here. Can you post it or send it? Many thanks.
"What France needs is to import their natural predators: the South Louisiana Coonass. "
I spent grade school years in New Orleans late 60's early 70's. Coonass was common slang back then.
From what I've heard since it seems the term has been PC'd to the point of near extinction.
Give me a bucket of crawdads, a sixer of beer, a football game, and a bucket to throw the shells in and I can die a happy man.
Revenge!! LOL!
Another blight on the surrender monkeys: CRABS! How appropriate.......
Now this is just SO politically incorrect.
Only a racist frog could say this.
I volunteer to lead a band of Louisanans and Texans to France to demonstrate the fine art of the crawfish boil to the French. All the crawfish we can eat for a few months doesn't sound bad.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.