US crayfish eat away at France

By ALEX DUVAL SMITH in Paris

Transatlantic relations have reached a new low amid reports that a voracious giant crayfish from the United States is nibbling away at the French coastline.

The humiliation, for France, is compounded by the fact that the crustacean abomination - procambarus clarkii - hails from Louisiana, the former French colony which France sold for a trifle in 1803 so that the US could become as large as it is.

The Anglo-Saxon invader delights in preying on delicate French frogs and defenceless tadpoles, as well as devouring small fish and aquatic plants.

"Wherever they go, there is no plant life left," said environment campaigner Jean-Marc Thirion.

Wetland warden Stephane Builles said the bright red invader with its giant pincers multiplied at an alarming rate in hidden seabed galleries with discreet aeration chimneys.

In these subaquatic dug-outs, each female lays up to 700 eggs, twice a year.

Scientists say that in the northern Gironde region of the Atlantic coast and in all the marshlands lining the Garonne river, the crayfish - whose 20cm length gives them unrivalled paddling power - have reached up to three tonnes per hectare.

Mr Builles, who is based at the Bruges wetland reserve near Bordeaux, first came across a breeding colony in 1999.

"It was the first time we had been confronted with this invasive species which carries a fungus that decimates our own white-legged crayfish," he said.

Further east, in the Landes region, Patrick Dulau, director of nature conservation, said the species was on the march like an invading army.

"I have seen them crossing roads in little groups to get to wetland," he said.

From the Gironde estuary, they have already made their way to Charente-Maritime, 100km away.

In 2002, they reached the Atlantic island of Oleron.

Yet the sinister seafood was willingly imported into France in the 1970s when supplies of indigenous crayfish suddenly declined. Then, in 1983, when local stocks had recovered, the importation into France of Louisiana crayfish was banned. Too late: procambarus clarkii was already embedded.

"There is nothing we can do. We cannot get rid of it," said Mr Builles, who added that attempts to use cages to trap and destroy the crustaceans had not significantly reduced the population.

Even migrating birds, with their considerable appetites, cannot be relied upon to eat the crayfish fast enough. What is more, the red menace is affecting the physical characteristics of birds that choose France as a resting place.

Jean-Claude Barbraud, an amateur birdwatcher who supplies data to a national research programme on herons, black kites and storks, said he had observed changes in migrating birds since 1978.

"In the space of a few years, the legs of young storks, which used to be black with yellow spots, have turned reddish. Even the skin around the wings is red," he said.

Reports of the ravages being wrought by the pincered predator come as France is still recovering from another US-led attack on Gallic gastronomy - the Bush Administration's decision to ban the use of the words "French fries" in Government canteens in Washington DC.

Furthermore, France is currently at loggerheads with the United States at Unesco - the United Nations education and science organisation - where it wants an international legal charter to be drawn up to safeguard biodiversity and minority languages.

The US rejoined Unesco last year to fight the proposal.

- INDEPENDENT