Louisiana's Favorite Crustacean, Invasive in Michigan

By • Aug 17, 2017
  • Crawfish
    Crawfish
    Flickr/Lawn Crawfish 022

News that Louisiana's favorite crustacean has turned up as an invasive species in Michigan prompted a local tourism agency to create a pop-up crawfish festival in Michigan.

A crew including a chef who farms crawfish left Lafayette, Louisiana, on Thursday morning for a 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) drive north to Vicksburg — the first spot in Michigan where red swamp crawfish were found.

On Saturday, they'll put on "Cray Day" with help from Michigan's Department of Natural Resources and a Cajun band from Michigan.

Festival organizers were amused at first to think of crawfish as dangerous, but have learned what the critters can do outside their natural habitat.

A state biologist from Michigan says he was nervous at first about the idea of the festival, but now sees it as a chance to teach more people about the invaders.

Tags: 
Crawfish
invasive species

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