ECOLOGICAL IMBALANCE

The American red crab and the

Indigenous crab of Spain

BY MARIO PATÓN

American crabs in Spain.

The humans put american red crabs (Procambarus clarkii) in Spain in the 1973.This people don´t know that this species have a type of fungi that is harmful to indigenous crab (Austropotamobius pallipes).This fungi is transmit in fishing tackle.

HOW WAS IT INTRODUCED?

1.The american crabs escape of fish farms and went to rivers.

2. For the greater yield of fishermen.

The American Red Crab and its impact on ecosystems.

The American red crab was carrying a plague that could kill an autochthonous crab.Soon his dense population was nothing more than a memory.The American red crab in great densities, can alter the ecosystem in which it lives.It is responsible for decreases in amphibian populations.

SOLUTIONFirst, the humans try to put other immune crabs called:Arrow crabs.But it doesn´t worked.

Second, periodic extractions and construction of containment dikes.Today we use the second solution, because it worked