The Netherlands Will Never Be Rid of Louisiana Crawfish
Confronted with a seasoned, boiled, arguably delicious crayfish, some of the people of the Netherlands are not sure exactly what to do. “Do you suck the head out?” I heard from the table next to me earlier this summer, at Two Chefs, a restaurant in Amsterdam that hosts a monthly crayfish boil. Yes is the answer: The best way to eat a crayfish is to shell the tail, then slurp the flavored juices out of the head, and pick out the remaining meat with your hands.
TL;DR
- Red swamp crayfish have invaded Dutch waterways, becoming a significant pest.
- Their burrows can damage infrastructure, and they destroy underwater vegetation and prey on other aquatic life.
- Complete eradication of the invasive crayfish is considered unlikely.
- Efforts to manage the population include encouraging natural predators and human consumption.
- Companies like CrawFish Farm Holland are working to promote crayfish as a food source in the Netherlands.