I ♥ you, Missouri and Maryland

Effective 1 March 2011, Marmorkrebs will be added to Missouri’s prohibited species list. Missouri Maryland is the first North American jurisdiction to consider Marmorkrebs specifically in their regulations, as far as I know. Marmorkrebs are already present in Missouri as pets, based on data in a forthcoming paper on Marmorkrebs in the pet trade.

Crayfish biologists generally agree that such regulations are good things. See the Lausanne Declaration by the International Association of Astacology for a summary of why.

I can’t help but be a bit chuffed that this website is listed as an information source in a Maryland fact sheet about Marmorkrebs. I’m even willing to overlook that they refer to the fake-y-not-really-a-species-name, “Procambarus marmorkrebs.” There is no such name!

So this gives me another reason to love Maryland besides that they once had a Canadian Football team. (I loved that in that year, there was a CFL team with no name, and two teams with the same name.)

Update: Corrected this post, which miscredited the legislation to Maryland, not Missouri, due to some misreading on my part. Whoops!