Pond-To-Table: Non-native crayfish

There are three non-native crayfish species that can out-compete our native signal crayfish and destroy vital habitat here in Oregon. For this month's Pond-To-Table Series, we take you hunting for Louisiana red swamp crayfish in the Willamette Valley, wrangling ringed crayfish in the Umpqua River and rounding up rusty crayfish on the John Day River. We'll walk you through the techniques, but good, old-fashioned hand-grabbing is hands-down the best way to get them. Then we'll show you how to cook up a good crayfish boil, Louisiana style.

You can harvest 100 crayfish per person per day. The reason there is a limit on non-native crawdads is to protect native signal crawdads from over harvest.

Crayfish make a fantastic meal, and by targeting non-native crayfish, you’ll be helping to reduce damage to our native habitats and pressure on our native signal crayfish.