Crayfish Conservation

Came across this by accident on this web site:

http://www.biology.e...u/news/news.php

September, 2007

Dr. Guenter Schuster http://people.eku.edu/schusterg/ is a lead author on significant publication featured in Fisheries, a publication of the American Fisheries Society, on the conservation of crayfish in the United States and Canada.

The paper was a group effort by ten crayfish biologists from all around the U.S. and Canada. This is the second effort (the first was 1996) to provide the conservation status for all crayfishes in the U.S. and Canada. This paper is an update, which was sorely needed because of the large number of new crayfish species that had been described in the last ten years. One of the major contributions by Dr. Schuster to this paper was to ensure that common names were created for all crayfish species. Prior to this paper only about 40% of crayfishes had common names. This is important because that is how conservation biologists converse with the public and more importantly with politicians and others who are responsible for policy. Most folks don't grasp scientific names very well, but can relate to names like "rusty gravedigger" or "mountain midget crayfish." Obviously, the most important contribution of this paper is the designation of conservation status for all species in North America. This allows conservation biologists and crayfish biologists to set priorities as to which species are in greatest need of protection and help. The finding in this paper is that a full 40% of all crayfishes need some sort of protection.

Please contact Dr. Schuster for more information regarding this publication: guenter.schuster@eku.edu

Whew this barely made it under the 8 mb size....this is the fisheries edition from 2007. I may have the first pub electronically somewhere...

Whew this barely made it under the 8 mb size....this is the fisheries edition from 2007. I may have the first pub electronically somewhere...

Awesome! Thanks Matt!

I have a photocopy of the 1996 article.

Dr. Guenter's pix of a Cambarus dubius looks a lot like the little critter they call a Coffin Cutter or Thunder crawfish down here. Ours is a chimney builder and seems to thrive in these old grave yards.
They seem to come out of their burrows mostly during really bad weather.

Curious if the two are related?

C. dubius is also a primary burrower and belongs to a whole group of other related burrowers. Can't tell you much about their phylogeny.