Should Redclaw Crayfish be introduced to Fiji?

Abstract

Whenever a new organism comes on the aquaculture scene there is a rush to try it out and to introduce the species to new locations. Such was the case with Pacifastacus leniusculus in Europe in the early 1980s. In the UK there was at the time no legislation to control such introductions and commercial pressures ensured that the species was soon widely distributed throughout the UK. One consequence was the introduction of the Crayfish Plague Aphanomyces astaci which resulted in the destruction of large populations of the native crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes in several river systems. It was against this background that I came to learn of a proposal to introduce Cherax quadricarinatus to Fiji in 1991. The commercial proposal was put to the Department of Fisheries who were considering accepting it when, on the basis of experience with crayfish in the UK, I proposed that there should be a delay while the species was evaluated for its likely effect on the Fijian fauna.

The redclaw crayfish: A prominent aquaculture species with invasive potential in tropical and subtropical biodiversity hotspots

“…Ovulation usually occurs within the next 24 hours (Jones 1995d). Secretions from the female glair glands accompanied with the mechanical action of pereopods dissolve the spermatophore wall, allowing fertilization and attachment of ovulated eggs to the pleopods (Lopez Greco & Lo Nostro 2008; Niksirat et al . 2014).…”

“…At the same time as the redclaw farming industry was developing in Australia, aquaculture enterprises and foreign governments or researchers began to study and perform experiments on the suitability of the species as an aquaculture candidate in their own territories. Among these, islands in Oceania such as Fiji, New Caledonia (French territory) and Samoa imported live crayfish to develop aquaculture procedures around this promising species (Table 1; Rubino et al 1990;Lowery 1995;Rimmer et al 1999). For example, a redclaw market in Pacific Islands (New Caledonia) was established by local producers in the 1990s, reaching a total production of six tonnes in 2001 for exportation (FAO 2004).…”