Crayfish Regulations
CPW presented background information, potential regulation changes, and results of public input at the August 24-25 Parks and Wildlife Commission (PWC) meeting.
The PWC approved the final regulations related to red swamp crayfish at their November 16-17, 2023 meeting, effective January 1st, 2024.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife now allows the importation, transportation, and possession of live red swamp crayfish in Colorado for human consumption, provided the following conditions are met:
No person may possess an individual of the species alive for more than 72 hours.
Any person who possesses the species alive must have:
a copy of an importation license that authorizes the importation of the crayfish in the person’s possession; and
a receipt or delivery confirmation reflecting the date the person took possession of the crayfish.
This regulation change will primarily impact businesses that import crayfish into Colorado and should have minimal impact on the average consumer. In most cases, the business importing live crayfish will apply for the importation license and a copy of the approved license must accompany the shipment of crayfish. Consumers buying live crayfish from an in-state vendor will receive a copy of the importation license along with the required receipt. Consumers buying cooked crayfish from a restaurant will be unaffected.
Importation licenses are available per calendar year through CPWShop.com.
Specific changes to Chapter W-0 can be found on page 8 with additional info on page 29 of this document: https://cpw.widen.net/view/pdf/kozqsvnt78/Item.11-W-0_Final.pdf?u=xyuvvu
The importation of most live crayfish species remains illegal in Colorado. The importation of many live aquatic species is illegal due to the threat they can pose to our aquatic resources (e.g. rusty crayfish, New Zealand mudsnails, zebra/quagga mussels, etc.).
Who's Listening
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Assistant Chief of Law Enforcement
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Assistant Aquatic Section Manager
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Public Involvement Specialist
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Public Involvement Specialist
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Policy and Planning Project Manager
These crawfish that we are talking about are incredibly expensive. They are delicious and it’s absurd anyone would think that someone would pay between $90-$150 for bait. These crawfish are for eating and if anyone is this concerned about it, license the import for seafood shops and restaurants to sell them live for consumption. This is just common sense. No fisherman I know is going to pay all that money for bait that is intended to be seasoned and cooked.
Please keep them out of our waters in Colorado. I use to love fishing up at Willams Fork Res. now its all you can do to keep the crawdads off your line.I cant use sucker meat for Pike or Lakers 10 mins and they got it cleaned off your hook. Hope this helps to keep them out .THANKS
I do not support importing non-native species into Colorado. We should be protecting our native environment first. The environment and nature affects all Coloradans. Making money only benefits a small number of individuals. Do not sacrifice what is for all Coloradans so that some people can make money. Native Colorado should always come first.
I didn't realize having live crawfish shipped to me was illegal, but frozen will work for this Louisiana transplant... As for my input, follow the science and do what's best for Colorado and our native species. Should that mean no import of live mudbugs, frozen works, so no sweat. Regards.
I do not support importing live crayfish into CO. Any non-native species has the ability to impact native species. As we've seen over the years with other non-natives carrying diseases and other habitat impacts it's important that we manage first for native species.
If there is any possibility of crayfish being released into Colorado waters then the complete ban on importation should be enforced.
I think this is absolutely absurd. As a avid crawfish hunter since I was a kid, if we aren't allowed to catch them here we need to be allowed to get them imported!
Has anyone ever done research to determine if Louisiana crawfish can survive the long and very cold winters in Colorado? Being from LA, I doubt it. Besides, if they could handle the cold weather, they most likely would have already migrated via natural means to the headwaters of all the Atlantic side of the Continental Divide. I say allow them in absence of any proof they can live and reproduce in Colorado's climate.
If this species could potentially be invasive to Colorado plant or wildlife, I personally do NOT support the release.
My research on this subject has not shown me the Redswamp crayfish, indigenous to parts of Mexico and Florida, will be beneficial to Colorado wildlife.
There is a reason why the crayfish are currently banned and I do not see a good reason to possibly hurt the indigenous Colorado environment.
Thank you.
Carrie Mears, Colorado native
The regulations are honestly not even needed. No one buying crawfish is going to willingly go and release them. The weather conditions here aren’t appropriate anyways. This law is only used for outside vendors but then you have places like Mama Pearls selling over priced crawfish that are over cooked. There are many other place selling crawfish too so they bring them in raw this breaking the regulation. Just get rid of it and let us eat our food it’s bad enough we’re in a land locked state!!!
It would be great if this rule would be edited and crayfish can be harvested.
I do feel like this might be a good thing to review and make edits. If open know what species of crayfish are in Colorado waters with the aid of the poeple looking for them.
Importing crawfish should be legal for human consumption. While you are at it, make it so we can transport crawfish that we catch in our state lakes, reservoirs and rivers to our homes for consumption without killing them first.
It’s a highlight of the year to share my cajun heritage and crawfish boiling traditions with other southerners living in Colorado and with my native Coloradan husband and family. It’s mind-boggling to me that this is currently an illegal practice.
Louisiana crawfish should be considered legal to import for consumption with penalties for practices that threaten local species. It seems incredibly unlikely that anyone would incur the cost of importing live crawfish from Louisiana to introduce to waterways rather than consuming. This rule should be changed!
As a person trying to start a small business I believe the import of crayfish should be made legal with certain provisions so that it can be proved they are not released into the wild but used for human consumption
Surely there's a way to allow for commercial transport and sales of crayfish for the purpose of consumption while maintaining penalties and other mitigation tools geared towards preventing their introduction into our waterways.
It's 2023, we can figure this out
There is plenty of crawfish in the reservoirs right now that is available for FREE if anyone wants to use it as bait. I guarantee that no one is going to pay top dollar for Louisiana crawfish and then release them. They are going to get eaten. Louisiana crawfish won't survive Colorado winters anyway!
Coloradans should be able to purchase live crawfish if they would like to do so!
With all the wildlife issues CPW needs to be focusing on this should be low on the list. If CO residents wish to import crayfish for personal consumption it should not be CPW's concern, at a minimum it could be handled by issuing a simple permit.
My understanding is that bucket biology is already illegal, so banning the import for food purposes seems redundant and unnecessary.