A new arrangement is planned to allow recreational anglers, angling clubs, contractors and muskrat controllers to catch invasive American crayfish. State Secretary Erkens informed the House of Representatives of the plan, saying that water authorities currently carry out the catching but have too few staff to reduce the population sufficiently. The Netherlands is estimated to have tens of millions of the crayfish in ditches, canals, lakes and ponds. They damage water quality and biodiversity by cutting aquatic plants, eating aquatic insects and the eggs of amphibians and fish, and digging passages and cavities that can weaken banks and dikes. The animals reproduce quickly and cannot be completely eradicated, but the ministry wants to increase efforts to catch them. Equipment such as slot traps and umbrella traps could be used.