Louisiana Crawfish Season Looks Bleak

This afternoon I spoke with Eric Trahan a crawfish farmer in Vermilion Parish and from our conversation I gathered we'll be eating fewer crawfish and paying more for them.

When if asked if the crawfish harvest was light due to cold weather Trahan said,

One of my ponds I might be catching twenty percent of what I caught last year and if I compared it to two or three years ago when I had almost a record year I might be catching only five percent of what I caught at this time those three years ago.

I asked Trahan if the catch was so light why would he and others bother to harvest crawfish this year.  He replied,

The price is ridiculously high at $3.50 (per pound) and that's the only reason we are fishing...If you catch two sacks of crawfish you gonna gross about $150 for two and a half hours of work.  But it's so much nicer to have seven or eights sacks where you see something for your labor.  Picking up an empty cage is not fun.

We asked if things would improve once the weather settles down and temperatures moderate?  According to Trahan,

I would think that even if the catch improves, the quality of your catch will not...There will be ugly crawfish for Mardi Gras and maybe even for Good Friday.

You can listen to the entire conversation with Trahan by clicking the blue arrow below: