Vietnam Battles US Invaders: Red-eared Sliders And Crayfish Editor's Note - Government ordered importer to destroy 40 tons of red-eared slider turtles imported from the US. How do you do that. That is thousands of turtles? And where did they come from? These are adult turtles, full size 4-9 inches used for food.
Hanoi - 9/14/10, Vnet- Vietnamese authorities said Tuesday they were moving to hunt down two invaders from the United States - red-eared slider turtles and red swamp crayfish.
The two animals were among more than 90 invasive species that have been detected in Vietnam due to the country's lively wildlife trade.
The Ministry of Agriculture last week ordered local authorities to destroy 40 tons of red-eared slider turtles imported from the US by a seafood company in the southern city of Can Tho.
The ministry had allowed the company to import the turtles provided they were killed for food before August 31, but the company had failed to do so.
Authorities said they were worried some of the notoriously invasive turtles, native to the southern US, might escape or be sold as pets.
"They might compete for food with native Vietnamese animals, or destroy the harmony of the environment," said Deputy Minister of Agriculture Vu Van Tam.
The Invasive Species Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature includes the red-eared slider on a list of 100 of the world's worst invasive species.
The ministry was also moving to contain another American newcomer, the red swamp crayfish.
A delegation from Hanoi was scheduled to travel Thursday to Truong Long Tay Commune in the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang, where farmer Le Van Men was discovered earlier this month to be raising several hundred red swamp crayfish in a fish pond.
The official Vietnam News reported Tuesday that Men said some of the crustaceans had escaped because the cages they were being raised in were not tight enough.
Commune agricultural development officer Dinh Minh Khuyen disputed that account.
"How can they have escaped from the pond? I don't believe it," Khuyen said. "They are in a 40-square-metre pond surrounded by a net."
Men had been raising the crayfish under personal instruction from Bui Quoc Hai, an employee of the SJ Crawfish Company, in Ho Chi Minh City, Khuyen said.
Hai had smuggled some crayfish back from the US in his hand luggage, the newspaper Thanh Nien reported.
Khuyen said that Hai simply wanted fresh crayfish to cook for his family and friends.
The American invaders have "no economic benefits, as they have thick skin and very little meat," the paper reported. "But they are very aggressive, and can threaten local crayfish
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