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In Katzensee the American red crayfish has displaced the previously resident species. So that the stock can be decimated, the intruder can now be caught for culinary use – a small team of hobby fishermen brings around one tonne onto the dinner plates of selected restaurants each season.
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The sun, like a glittering golden ball, has just crawled over the reed belt at Katzensee when Rolf Rüegg detaches his rowing boat from the boathouse. Like every day between the beginning of May and the end of September, when there is not a hail of cats, he or a colleague takes to the lake at 6 o’clock in the morning. With practiced oar strokes, Rüegg aims for a first trap on the opposite bank. The day before he had put pieces of a frozen swallow in the trap, a white fish that is difficult to sell because of its many bones. But swallows are always good bait for the American red crayfish.
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