Tribal leaders in Kodiak are working to determine why crawfish, an invasive species, are spreading into the Buskin watershed.
The Kodiak Daily Mirror reports that the small crustaceans have been spotted in the Kodiak waters occasionally since the early 2000s, but now the Sun’aq Tribe says the problem is more widespread than previously believed.
Sun’aq officials have been working to catch the crawfish with funds from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. So far, 228 crustaceans have been sampled. Signal crawfish have been found to be breeding in Buskin Lake.
The invasive species can be damaging to the native habitat. Burrowing can affect vegetation in lakes. Sun’aq officials will spend one weekend in August electrofishing in the lake in hopes of catching and removing crawfish from the ecosystem.
