So this news is mildly freakish. There’s a crayfish (crawfish, crawdad, they’re all same thing) out in the wild capable of cloning itself. Normally, such a mutation might not have been such a large issue. However, due to irresponsible aquarium hobbyist introducing their non-native, self-cloning crayfish into various bodies of water throughout the world, the potential for some environmental impact is quite real as the crayfish may not have natural predators and can out compete native species. They have been confirmed to be in bodies of water in across Europe, Japan, and Madagascar.
Nature might correct itself due to the fact that they are all self-cloning, it does mean that a single weakens, whether it would be a pathogen or environmental change, can, in fact, help control or wipe out the population. If one does exist, the challenge then faces the issue of the widespread dispersion of the crayfish. Said weakness needs to find its way or occur into all the other bodies of water to essentially wipe out this crayfish without affecting other species. One also has to hope that no additional mutations down the line that would overcome this weakness.
No doubt that there should be concern about this and an intervention may be needed. Perhaps I can propose a tasty solution to this? Just like the lionfish invasion in the Gulf of Mexico and the Asian crap incursion in the Mississippi River, I think chefs around the world can find ways to help us eat ourselves out of this. This is income to crayfish gathers and eventually be a market for crayfish farmers. Crawfish boil sounds delicious right about now. This flavorful concoction of butter, spices, lemon, garlic, potatoes, corn, and crawfish has been a huge hit to many fans.
