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Crawfish lovers may pay high prices this season if they even find the delicacy.
Drought and other weather factors are blamed for the shortage, which is why many fish suppliers and restaurants are announcing delays.
“It’s going to be the worst season ever,” Mark Shirley, crawfish specialist at the Louisiana State University AgCenter, told the Louisiana Radio Network. “The population just isn’t there. Buyers offer fishermen $7 to $8 a pound just to get them to go out, bait traps and look for them. It could be at any price, they just aren't there.” “
Crawfish, often called mud bugs or crayfish, are tiny freshwater crabs that taste similar to lobster and shrimp. They're big business in Louisiana, where, according to Shirley, 361,000 acres were supposed to be farmed, but drought kept farmers from flooding their fields.
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Crawfish sit in a bucket of water to clean themselves before being cooked in New Orleans on April 11, 2020. (Claire Bangser/AFP via / Getty Images)
Heat has been blamed for affecting crops during the growing months, and recent cold has been blamed for affecting crops.
“The mud from May to July was often too dry for crawfish to bury themselves in, and many of them died or had their growth stunted,” reports food website Eater Houston. “Now many farmers are waiting for the population to recover, but predictions of cold snaps in Louisiana in January are also making some farmers worried and hesitant to spend money on bait, gas to run boats and labor to check crawfish traps daily “Until conditions improve.”
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Burch Andrepont hauls fresh crawfish into a section of a lake near Eunice, Louisiana, March 8, 2000. In this area, about 30% of the land is devoted to crawfish and rice farms. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
According to the LSU AgCenter, crabs are an “excellent source of high-quality protein” that is low in calories, fat and saturated fat. They are also sources of vitamin B12, niacin, iron, copper and selenium. They are most commonly prepared boiled, but are also served in a variety of dishes such as gumbos, étouffées and pistolettes.
Most are harvested between December and June, with the peak spring months of March, April and May in the Bayou State.
K & B Seafood, a seafood market in Mississippi, posted on Facebook that it wasn't just farmers who were affected.
“If you are able, please support your local farmers, docks and boiler houses as this is going to be a really tough year for everyone involved,” K&B Seafood wrote.
Boiled crawfish are prepared at Bevi Seafood Co. in New Orleans on March 19, 2020. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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Baton Rouge television station WVLA reports that average prices for the week of Jan. 12 were $12.99 per pound, nearly double what they were at the same time last year.
“Louisians have been spoiled for the past five years with an early start to crawfish season, as early as November and December in some years, but 2024 will be different. We are confident that supply will increase in the coming weeks and prices should also increase.” We are getting back to normal in time for Lent. But we have to be patient,” Laney King, co-founder of The Crawfish App, told the station.
According to PBS NewsHour, Louisiana is the largest crawfish fishery in the country.