Behavior and Threat Profile
Freshwater crayfish are the invertebrate infrastructure of any functioning freshwater ecosystem. They are in the substrate, under stones, in leaf litter on stream beds. They clean organic material, they are eaten by fish, birds, and reptiles, and they are available to anyone willing to look in shallow water.
As a collectible bait species in Leonida they represent the most accessible end of the fishing supply chain. Wade into the Grassrivers shallows in the right zone, look in the right substrate, and they are available without equipment.
The Grassrivers shallows are the primary collection zone, which creates a specific category of player decision: the shallow slow-water margins where crayfish are found are also the shallow slow-water margins where alligators and cottonmouths operate. The bait is accessible. The access cost is the environment.