LSU Ag Center Crawfish Specialist Mark Shirley warns crawfish connoisseurs that 2024 will be one of the worst mudbug seasons on record as far as prices and supply are concerned. He says it’s so dire farmers are averaging one to two mudbugs a trap.
“It’s going to be the worst season ever. The population is just not there. The buyers are offering $7 and $8 a pound to the fishermen just to try to get them to go out and bait traps and go find them. It could be whatever price, they’re just not there,” said Shirley.
And he worries the freeze forecasted next week will only make things worse.
Shirley says Louisiana should have 361,000 acres of crawfish production, that’s what farmers probably would have flooded up back in the fall, but the drought hampered things severely.
“About half of that is not going to produce any crawfish at all. The half that does have a few crawfish is going to be late. You probably find some towards the end of March, April, and May, but it’s going to be a very short supply from the farm,” said Shirley.
And the Super Bowl of Crawfish, Easter is March 31st.
The other unknown Shirley says is wild crawfish in the Atchafalaya Basin. Right now, he says the water levels are only two to three feet which is very low, and unless we get a lot of rain in the Mississippi watershed…
“In the next several months a lot of snow melt, that’s what the Atchafalaya Basin depends on. It’s just not looking good for crawfish at all,” said Shirley.
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