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Everybody I have spoken with says that for the best crawdads, they should be cooked live. So this necessitates cooking them on-site if you really want to cook them alive.
My question is, would the DWR ever go for a change in regulations allowing the live transport of crawdads? We all know the dangers of transporting live fish and "bucket biology" but do crawdads pose the same danger that fish do? Can they drastically change the ecosystem of a body of water? Enough so to merit the current regs?
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It is a bit worse than you think. Crawdads should be "purged" for a day or two before they are cooked, which means keeping them alive and unfed until they clear out their gut. So unless you are camping, there's no way to properly cook the little boogers and also obey the Utah laws.
Law or no law, I would carry them home, allow them to purge, and then cook them. The law's purpose is to prevent bucket biology, and if you eat them, you are certainly not planting them in another lake. Spirit versus letter of the law, if you will.
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[quote RockyRaab]
Law or no law, I would carry them home, allow them to purge, and then cook them. Spirit versus letter of the law, if you will.[/quote]
really?
It's a  world we live in.
Justify all you want -- transporting live fish, including live crayfish is against the law. I hope you get caught taking them home live, and I hope you get punished.
OP -- yes, crayfish certainly do present a very real threat to fisheries. Here is one article discussion some of the issues the West is currently facing:
https://www.hcn.org/issues/181/5871
You can find a lot of other info on the problems with moving live crayfish by doing some searches.
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[#0000FF]Can't believe you are openly advocating a violation of the regulations.
Purging is not the only solution. If you twist off the tails and then twist and pull on the fin part it will effectively remove the "mud vein" from the tail meat. But they should be immediately immersed in ice or ice water to bring the temperature down.
I have kept tails and claws in a semi fresh condition for a couple of days before cooking and serving.
On the other hand, if you are transporting whole crawdads keeping them on ice is not a sure fire way to keep them good. They "go south" quickly in a whole state once they die. A quick "sniff test" will let you know which ones to discard.
For what it's worth, I DO agree that there should be some kind of "dispensation" for transporting crawdads in a live state if they are meant for consumption. Knowing how things have gone in the past and the present...with bucket biologists...it is understandable that DWR wants to put up whatever roadblocks it can. But they also want to encourage greater harvest of crawdads. So it would help both causes if we could carry them home while they are still alive.
COs have enough trouble monitoring and enforcing more heinous transgressions. There is virtually no targeted effort to catch and prosecute crawdad fans who break that law. Heaven forbid we should ever have to go through checkpoints set up by the crawdad cops.
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Now, I'm NOT advocating breaking any laws, but crawfish are much better if they have purged themselves for a day or two!
Keep in mind that if you chose to keep them alive (say you are camping at the lake or whatever) they will drown if you keep them in a bucket or cooler of non aerated water. I have found that they last a couple hours in no water and only about 30 minutes in a bucket of water. We have a battery powered bait bubbler that will keep them alive overnight, then we change out the water a few times till they are all cleaned out...yum!
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I assure you, PBH, if I chose to carry live crawfish home, and if I were caught, and if the CO decided to write me a ticket after hearing my explanation, then I would gladly take my punishment.
Again, I would complying with the intent of the law, if not the exact letter.
I'm sure you never break any laws at all, such as driving over the limit. If so, I applaud you.
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I gotta agree with RockyRaab. I follow the rules as close as possible, but this one is just dumb. The reason transporting live fish is illegal is to stop bucket biologists. If you are driving strait home to cook and eat the crawdads, you aren't actually doing anything wrong (ethically). Plus everyone does it. Don't let them go into another water, and you're fine by me.
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[url "http://www.cajuncrawfish.com/crawfish/crawfish.html"]http://www.cajuncrawfish.com/crawfish/crawfish.html[/url]
Live crawfish shipped to your door...
I dont see the difference in taking them to your home live verses having them shipped to your home live! The illegal act here should be "placing them in another body of water" not transporting them live...
I would sign a petition in an attempt to change this!
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You can have live crawdads of three or four different species shipped to you in Utah. Restaurants and caterers do it all the time.
HAWAII, NORTH DAKOTA & WASHINGTON STATE are the only states that most crawdad farms will not deliver live product to.
I could be wrong but it seem their might be some exceptions to that DWR reg.
If you get caught with a bucket of live crawdads while fishing for bass on a water that does not have crawdads in it you are sure to get a ticket.
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[quote PBH]
OP -- yes, crayfish certainly do present a very real threat to fisheries. Here is one article discussion some of the issues the West is currently facing:
https://www.hcn.org/issues/181/5871
[/quote]
That's an interesting article. Thanks for posting. I gotta imagine the stream mentioned in that article had a "perfect storm" of factors that would allow a population of crayfish to bloom virtually uninhibited by other predators. We have crayfish in many trophy fisheries in Utah (the A-section of the Green comes to mind) and haven't had any of the devastation like that witnessed in AZ.
My main concern (and admittedly, I'm only an armchair biologist) would be the potential for transfer of disease and the potential for crayfish to negatively impact spawning fish eggs - especially trout.
I just think the law isn't really accomplishing anything other than inhibiting the innocent transport of crayfish. Bucket biologists are breaking the law already. Those who just want to transport the crayfish home aren't intending to introduce them to other waters.
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Watch out Rocky, don't forget these are the same guys who thinks it's right for Mantua Barney to write you a ticket for going 2 MPH over.
Probably the only time fish cops are going to find out if you're transporting live fish is if you're doing something questionable. If you catch a bucket of crawdads at Strawberry and then drive somewhere else to fish for a few hours and a fish cop wants to check your cooler there, you probably deserve the ticket.
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One method to deal with the purging issue is to put the dads in salt water for 10-15 minutes before cooking. Requires a large container and access to fresh water. Having a boil on site is a fun activity with family after catching them. If you are not cooking them on site, then TD's process of pulling the tails and deveining is the only way to transport.
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Story on the news today about the people who are the real problem when it comes to introducing new species into different bodies of water. It's not the responsible sportsman who wants to enjoy his catch, it's ignorant people out there that are ruining the ecosystem!
[url "http://www.ksl.com/?sid=35203795&nid=1288&title=st-george-man-catches-piranha-relative-in-southern-utah-lake&s_cid=queue-22"]http://www.ksl.com/?sid=35203795&nid=1288&title=st-george-man-catches-piranha-relative-in-southern-utah-lake&s_cid=queue-22[/url]
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The only way I have ever eaten the things is to pull the tail off and devain them. I have never eaten the body or the claws. Maybe I'm missing the reasoning for cooking the whole thing. I pull them apart at the waters that I catch them at. I put the tails on ice and cook them when I get home. The only thing I have a hard time understanding is why do I need a fishing license to catch the dumb things?If I'm using traps or a chicken leg on a rope. Unless they consider a rope as fishing tackle.
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I eat the claws the same way I do with crab...crack the moveable pincer back so it breaks, move it back to the natural position and pull it out so it takes the little clear blade of internal shell with it, then crack the big pad of the shell by giving it a squeeze with shell crackers, or with my teeth (usually my teeth), along the top and bottom edge. With just a little practice it always cracks the back half off and you can suck the claw meat out. Only worth it with claws an inch and a half long or longer.
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+1
I agree with Rocky, 100%. The problem is idiots dumping them in places they shouldn't. There is no problem with people keeping them alive on the ride home, and then eating them.
One day we will learn that we cannot stop the fools from doing foolish things.... the bucket-bozos will do whatever they please, whenever they please... and no law is going to stop them.
There is such a thing as "right" and "wrong", and often they do not align neatly with "legal" and "illegal".
I say if you want to keep the craws alive until you get home and cook them. DO IT! Yes you risk being caught and ticketed but that risk is extremely small.
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[#0000FF]I doubt that many who actually harvest and eat crawdads agree with the law as written. Like other laws on the Utah books it was put in the regulations by people...people who are human and sometimes have to struggle with wording so that it makes a point and makes sense too. In the past few years there has been an open attitude at DWR to try to change wordings subject to misunderstandings. They have even been known to amend the regs to make them more in line with reality. A good example was their effort to clarify the definition of cutthroat markings at Strawberry.
I suspect that if enough crawdad fanciers were to voice their opinions and desires on this issue that it might at least come up for objective review.
Otherwise, it smacks of the attitude often found in some big corporations...whenever someone asks "why?". "Ain't no good reason for it. It's just company policy."
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Absolutely.
I'm emailing the DWR right now and including a link to this thread. Let's get this policy changed.
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While I don't disagree with you in practice, I think this question should examined from an enforcement perspective. If an CO were to inspect a livewell or cooler away from the lake and find live crawdads, how is he to determine whether they were being transported for dinner or more nefarious purposes? If a bucket biologist claimed they were to be eaten, and they are presumed innocent until proven guilty, there could be no intervention. Otherwise the only time someone could be prosecuted is if they were observed dumping them into another body of water. At that point the damage is done.
Transporting live fish or crayfish is illegal because simply possessing them is not. I would be curious to know how many tickets have been written in the last 10 years, or how many successful prosecutions have taken place for illegal transplant vs transport.
Still, similar to speeding, the choice to transport them illegally is up to the individual.
That said, years ago, I killed a cooler full of crawdads by putting them on ice. When I arrived home, I was shocked to find they were still alive. Imagine my surprise. As a matter of conscience, and since the ice didn't work, I felt compelled to put them into a pot of boiling water to kill them. For good measure I poisoned the water with some lemon and Old Bay crab boil. That did the trick.
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