Q&A: Can you eat crayfish from the North Saskatchewan River?
CBC
They are known as crayfish if you're in Canada. Crawfish or crawdads in the U.S. Yabbies in Australia.
Whatever you call them, the lobster-like freshwater crustaceans may be closer than you think. These critters have been scuttling and spreading in Alberta waters — and in recent years have even settled into the North Saskatchewan River.
CBC's Edmonton AM checked in with Heather Proctor, a biologist at the University of Alberta to get the details on crawfish moving into Edmonton's waters.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Are there crayfish in the North Saskatchewan River?
Yes, there are indeed. And that was a surprise to me when I first saw them there.
The history of the crayfish in Alberta is a complicated one. Even up to 1991, the crayfish were restricted to the Beaver River drainage, which is northeast of Edmonton. And even at that point, there were concerns that the crayfish species, Faxonius virilis, might actually go extinct in Alberta because it was so restricted in habitat.
So when I came back after a decade or so away and found them in the North Saskatchewan, I was totally surprised.
What happened with their survivability or their spread through the system? How did that happen?
Well, it's still in part a mystery.
For any standing water body, including many stormwater ponds in Edmonton, crayfish got there because people put them there. That was either deliberately, because people like crayfish — they're sort of cute and possibly edible — and also maybe through movement of like shore stabilizing material could potentially just accidentally move them around.
But in the North Saskatchewan and also in the Battle River drainage system, it seems that they, for whatever reason, walked up on their own.
Obviously, some species are native to the province and some are not. What is the risk of more crayfish in more bodies of water?
That's certainly a big concern to fish and wildlife and other ecological environmentally associated agencies.
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