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.
Thanks.
"Revocation of the Edict of Nantes"
Very good, Starwolf. This is why we left France, to come to the New World (Canada... Arcadia) to practice our religion in freedom. But the king sent their armies to massacre us, drove the Arcadians (now Cajuns) to Louisiana.
LOL, that is a great take on this topic!! Sacre bleu, un grand bec orange!
Good question. I saw a woman in a headscarf eating clam chowder today. I nearly asked her if shellfish were Halal.
Have we sent them a few of those huge tree Roaches yet?
Just wondering.
See #35 and did you ever taste Jax; I'm surprised it took them so long to go out of business. The absolute worst, Dixie beer was # 2.
Gumbo, that's the answer.
I should be upset with this, why????????
OK. Operation crawdad is a success. Now let us procede with the Nutria plan and then the Fire Ants. Other areas of possible success could be seen with Jehova's Witnesses or maybe Hollywood actors.
"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," [Jean-Marc Thirion] said. "When the Louisiana crawfish population is established after a few years in the same site, we note the extinction of amphibian species."
No, we can't have frogs exterminated in France. It's too symbolic.
You get a line and I'll get a pole and we'll go down to the crawdad hole................
Pray for W and Our Troops
They over looked one solution: Transplant enough of my good friends from Sout' Loosiana (pure blood Coon Asses) and they'll relieve them of their problems raitt now.
First off the French will have to conduct an environmental study of how "pure blood Coon Asses" could affect the environment. You know, those big boots tromping on that native vegetation, that be real bad.
I never even heard of Jax, was it as bad as Iron City?
crawfish bisque.
don't forget the snakeheads.
This sounds series!
What kind of wine goes with that stuf?
No, I never had the pleasure of tasting Jax.
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