Drought pinched Louisiana's crawfish harvest, but mudbug fans are weathering the shortage

BATON ROGUE, La. (AP) —

Feel free to alteration nan headline. Stephen Smith is finishing video. Additionally, caller crawfish photos should beryllium uploaded soon. For now I americium utilizing filers.

In Jeff Pohlmann’s 39 years of trading crawfish successful Louisiana he has ne'er seen nan manufacture look specified an abysmal shortage of “mudbugs.”

Driven by past summer’s drought, utmost heat, saltwater intrusion connected nan Mississippi River and a difficult wintertime freeze, nan nation’s apical shaper of crawfish harvested a fraction of what is emblematic of nan mini crustaceans successful a play — pinch tens of thousands of acres mislaid aliases failing. And while Louisianans are still buying and trading crawfish, a staple successful Gulf Coast seafood boils and a portion of Louisiana’s “way of life,” nan situation tin beryllium felt crossed nan state.

“I’ve ne'er knowledgeable this earlier and it hits you successful nan pocketbook,” said Pohlmann.

At nan yearly Louisiana Crawfish Festival successful St. Bernard Parish, fans chowing down connected crawfish pasta, bread, pies and etouffee said nan crustaceans person been constricted truthful acold this season. Some said they person yet to be a crawfish boil, celebrated during Lent erstwhile galore successful nan heavy Catholic southbound Louisiana activity alternatives to meat. Pounds of nan freshly cooked mudbugs pinch maize and potatoes are poured onto communal tables.

High prices person meant that “nobody has really been boiling,” said Sara Garcia, a Louisiana resident who often attends nan festival.

Despite outpouring rainfall and nan crawfish shortage, vendors astatine nan show were slinging droves of Styrofoam boxes filled pinch tasty reddish crustaceans, fixings and dipping sauce. However, galore noted that nan prices for a lb of mudbugs were higher than usual, which has been evident crossed nan state.

Around this clip past year, nan costs for a lb of boiled crawfish successful Louisiana was betwixt $3 to $5. While prices this twelvemonth person slow decreased since nan commencement of nan season, they still scope from astir $6 to $10 per pound, based connected crawfish value indexes tracked by local news stations and vendors. Other places simply don’t person crawfish disposable astatine all.

But nan shortage isn’t conscionable hitting customers wherever it hurts. Pohlmann, who owns Today’s Ketch Seafood & Restaurant successful Chalmette, said crawfish income are 30% of what he usually sees.

“When you look astatine nan husbandman and retailer, and I cognize nan mediocre user wants to eat it, but we spell to activity to make a surviving conscionable for illustration everybody other does. So, unfortunately, prices person to beryllium a small higher than usually what we’re accustomed to,” Pohlmann said.

Louisiana generates anyplace from 175 cardinal to 200 cardinal pounds of crawfish — contributing $500 cardinal to nan state’s system annually, according to Gov. Jeff Landry’s office. The Louisiana State University’s Agriculture Center estimates nan imaginable losses to nan state’s crawfish manufacture to beryllium astir $140 million.

Earlier this month, Landry issued a disaster declaration for nan industry, which is nan ineligible underpinning that assists successful securing national resources.

Typically 1 of nan wettest states successful nan country, Louisiana saw immoderate of its driest conditions past year. The ungraded wherever crawfish burrow to laic eggs dried retired starring to a dismal harvest this season.

“You don’t messiness pinch Mother Nature, and that’s why you’re seeing these precocious prices,” Pohlmann said. “No rainfall past twelvemonth and drought, and we’re paying for it today.”