Massive 10-inch crayfish found in Bowling Green

BOWLING GREEN, KY (WAVE) - A Bowling Green utility worker made a discovery at a water intake plant he won’t forget anytime soon.

The utility worker found a 10-inch crayfish dead inside the filtration system at the BGMU Chestnut Street intake plant, where water is taken out of the Barren River.

It was taken to Western Kentucky University for preservation.

WKU biology professor, Dr. Steve Huskey, is holding onto the crayfish until it’s sent to the Natural History Survey in Illinois for scientists to research.

The Natural History Survey has a collection of over 90,000 crustaceans.

Huskey says the crayfish found in Bowling Green is six millimeters longer than any crayfish in that collection.

Huskey told WAVE 3 News’ NBC affiliate in Bowling Green, WNKY, that he thought the worker was trying to trick him.

“When I first laid my eyes on this thing, my jaw dropped,” Huskey said. “I thought he brought in a lobster from Florida and tried to pawn it off as a crawdad. It’s absolutely enormous.”

The crayfish will remain at Western Kentucky University until the end of the semester. It will then be transferred to Illinois.