KUALA LUMPUR: Villagers living in Mukim Ayer Hitam in Muar, Johor, are no longer thrilled by the prospect of eating crayfish from Australia.
At one point, the freshwater crayfish could fetch RM100 per kg, but now they are practically worthless to the villagers as they have become an invasive species in the area.
Now, villagers say they can find the crayfish in canals in front of their homes, and they are available in such great numbers that they are sick of eating the crayfish.
Community scientist Mohd Ilham Norhakim Lokman said the invasive species was "unique" compared to invasive fish like the suckermouth catfish, commonly called "Ikan Bandaraya".
"Ikan Bandaraya are not in demand and are not eaten by the majority of people," he said.
"In the case of the crayfish, people eat them and they are commercially reared, they can fetch a high price on the market.
"It is just that in this area, there are too many of them in the waterways that it is scary."
Ilham, a visiting researcher at enCORe Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, said he could catch as many as 30 crayfish in an hour.
He said there were fewer native species like gourami, climbing perch and snakehead which once filled the area's waterways.
These days, the waterways are dominated by the crayfish.
"What is worrying is that the crayfish could enter the North Ayer Hitam forest reserve because a single female crayfish can produce between 100 and 1,000 eggs.
He said experts from local universities were now running programmes to raise awareness about the crayfish which many believed to be native and the threat they posed to the environment.