A seafood merchant has never seen crawfish so scarce on the MS Coast. What happened?
Third-generation crawfish merchant Cameron Cuevas has never seen the mudbugs so scarce.
“Normally, by January 1, we’re pushing a lot of volume of crawfish,” Cuevas, owner of Claw Daddy’s Crawfish in Gulfport, told the Sun Herald on Tuesday. “We haven’t sold a crawfish this season.”
Cuevas said sales records show this is the latest start to the season in at least 16 years. Prices have more than tripled, he said. The few crawfish that are available are selling for $12 to $15 a pound, boiled, compared to $3.89 a pound this time last year.
The season usually starts in November and is going full tilt by December.
Mark Shirley of the Louisiana State University AgCenter, area agent for the state’s southwest region, follows the crawfish industry closely and recently put out a letter that explained what’s going on. His assessment has grabbed the attention of crawfish lovers and industry insiders everywhere.
Weather-related setbacks
Shirley said in his open letter that summer drought and heat lingering into the fall have wiped out a lot of crawfish. Recent freezing temperatures haven’t helped. He’s been scouring ponds for mud bugs but has caught very few in his dipping nets.
“The ones I do see were likely released from their mother’s tail since the big rain event the region had on December 1, 2023,” he said in the letter, reprinted in full by the Livingston (Louisiana) Parish News, and widely quoted on websites and Facebook..
“Given the cold water temperature in January, their growth will be slow and (they will) not reach harvest size until late March or April. But even when these crawfish are big enough to catch, there is not a large population of them. The catch may pick up for a short while in April and May but will not be sustainable for the entire spring. The spring crop will be a fraction of what is normally caught.”
So, not very good news on the crawfish front. Further, Shirley says, crawfish farmers are dealing with price hikes in their operations. Consumers will undoubtedly notice prices doubling — or worse.
Shirley’s letter was not well-received in Bayou Country next door. One Facebook user wrote, “I guess his momma never told him if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all. . . . Hope he’s wrong.”
Cuevas is trying to remain optimistic. He has shrimp and hopes customers will come order some.
“We’re still hoping and praying that we’re going to get started here real soon,” he said. “All we need is a a little warm weather and Mother Nature to cooperate with us. Hopefully, we can still pull out a great season.”
