CROWLEY, Louisiana – Things are getting back to normal now that the ice from last week’s snowstorm has melted. Many people are curious about what this means for crab season. Scott Broussard, a crawfish farmer in Crowley and owner of Acadia Crawfish Company, said the cold weather has affected how much they can catch each day.
LSU states that water temperature is the key factor for crawfish. 65 degrees. Crawfish move at full speed (100%) when the temperature is up to 100 degrees. For every 5 degrees lower, their speed decreases by half. If they are going 100 feet at an angle of five degrees, the distance is less than 65, which is 60. They only travel 50 feet. Right now, with water temperatures in the forties, crawfish aren’t moving much. The traps are spaced 40, 50, and 60 feet apart. He explained that they can’t move back and forth to trap.
He said they could return to the field on Saturday when the ice finally melted off the traps.
“Our catch was starting to recover from the freeze before the last one.” The crabs were caught in the traps. They survived the cold. We had three inches of ice on the farm, on the ponds, our kids walked to the trap on top of the ice and then they were able to break the ice around the trap and get them out. We noticed that the crawfish were found in the trap. We caught a good amount of fish on Saturday, but the bait we used on Saturday led to less than half the catch on Sunday. Broussard said, “Today, the catch is about the same as it was on Sunday, and we’re waiting for the water to warm up.”
When the water gets warmer, they expect to catch more fish until they go into a deeper area.
“This season seems to be better than last year, and we hope prices become affordable so more people can buy. However, currently, prices are low.” Prices have increased. The season is starting now. “It varies in size; sometimes it’s small, sometimes it’s big, and it changes throughout the day,” he said. “On the live on the retail market. You can expect costs to be about $5 to $6 for raw items and around $8 to $9 for cooked items, possibly around $7.50 to $9. At the beginning of the year, crabs don’t thrive. When you wash the crabs before cooking, you lose more of them, which raises your costs because you’re discarding the ones you bought. I’m asking everyone to be patient, and I’m hopeful for a great season. I appreciate your support. “It’s a large industry, and we need help.”
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