Aquaculture of non endemic species - Redclaw Crayfish

Background

Redclaw (Cherax quadricarinatus) is a tropical freshwater crayfish species native to northern Queensland and the Northern Territory. The species has been successfully introduced to several areas beyond its natural range, including small, controlled experimental facilities in Western Australia.

It is considered that redclaw may have prospects for large-scale commercial aquaculture in the tropical regions of Western Australia, particularly in the Ord River Irrigation Area of the Kimberley region. There is significant interest in redclaw aquaculture in Western Australia and the Department of Fisheries of Western Australia (FDWA) has a number of applications pending for licences to farm redclaw.

The development of commercial aquaculture of any non-endemic species such as redclaw raises a number of important issues relating to translocation. These include the potential of the introduced species to:

• impact on genetic diversity,
• introduce disease
• impact on :
• the natural environment; and
• the bio-diversity of native species.

This Management Paper has been drafted in liaison with the Department of Environmental Protection in accordance with the principles of risk assessment and taking into account the above issues. It is considered that the implementation of this policy will protect the natural environment and native crayfish species. It will also allow for the development of a redclaw industry, and provide the first step towards self regulation of that industry.

This document is only available in hardcopy from the Fisheries Library.