Introduced alien signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) in Finland : uncontrollable expansion despite numerous crayfisheries strategies
2018
In Finland, massive
signal crayfishintroductions started towards the end of 1980s, with an estimated total of 2.2 million
signal crayfishbeen stocked before year 2016. During that period, Finnish fisheries authorities have implemented three national management strategies setting guidelines for the
crayfishintroductions. The main aims of the strategies have been conservation of native noble
crayfishstocks and a controlled spreading of the alien
signal crayfishwithin a designated region. In this study, we report the current distribution of
signal crayfishin Finland in comparison to the guidelines set in these three national strategies. The present distribution area of the
signal crayfishcovers most of the Southern Finland. The
signal crayfishhas been introduced with a stocking permits to over 480 water bodies. In addition, there have been numerous stockings without permits, which are often next to the region designated for the
signal crayfish. Based on the results, we conclude that
crayfishmanagement strategies adopted in Finland have only had limited effect on the spread of
signal crayfish. We presume that main causes for the uncontrolled spreading of the
signal crayfishin Finland have been lack of strict official supervision and general lack of awareness about the risks associated with the alien species spreading.
Keywords:
-
Correction
-
Source
-
Cite
-
Save
42
References
6
Citations
NaN
KQI