Water monitoring group finds 16 invasive crayfish in Nose Creek in less than 60 seconds

A record number of invasive northern crayfish has been counted in one of Calgary's northeast water bodies this past week by a volunteer advocacy group, Save Nose Creek.

The group has been testing Nose Creek each week since June for water quality, chemicals and invertebrates, as part of their training with CreekWatch Alberta.

Usually, they catch three to five of the mini-lobster looking critters in a span of 30 seconds to one minute.

But on Aug. 3, volunteers tallied up 16 northern crayfish — their biggest count yet, according to Save Nose Creek founder Andrew Yule.

Watch | Volunteer advocacy group catches crayfish in Nose Creek

"Every time we've gone out, it's just more and more and more…. It just shows that there's nothing really stopping this crawfish from multiplying," said Yule.

"It's not a great thing to see an invasive species thrive in a creek that you're trying to preserve."

Alongside other teams in other areas of the city, Yule says the group will continue its weekly monitoring of Nose Creek until about October, as CreekWatch works on a report with its findings.

Under provincial regulations, northern crayfish are considered an aquatic invasive species of concern.

They're native to Alberta, but not Calgary. They've historically been found between Wainwright and Ryley in the Beaver River watershed, southeast of Edmonton.

But through the years, they've scuttled their way south through the province, all the way down to Montana. One was even captured in Banff National Park for the first time last year.

Nicole Kimmel, aquatic invasive species specialist for Alberta Environment and Protected Areas, says no others have been found in Banff since then.

She says she's trying to figure out how the critters have been spreading so vastly.

"We think people are helping it move along," said Kimmel. "We think some folks like to use them as bait, and they might not be ensuring that they're dead."