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The Louisiana crawfish disaster may not be over.
Although the U.S. The Department of Agriculture approved emergency financial relief for struggling crawfish farmers, the 2023 drought’s impact could linger into next year and beyond, an LSU AgCenter professor surmises.
“Louisiana’s crawfish aquaculture industry will experience impacts from the 2023 drought for several seasons before an economic recovery is complete,” writes C. Greg Lutz, a professor in the LSU AgCenter’s Aquaculture Research Station, in his latest column, The Lutz Report, on TheFishSite.com. “Should drought conditions return before that takes place, the industry will be drastically transformed from the one we have come to know.”
The August drought conditions caused cracking soil, saltwater intrusion in irrigation canals, and loss of vegetative crops needed to fuel the crawfish food web throughout the season. During that same period, Lutz writes, many producers were also unable to flood their ponds due to low water levels.
Louisiana is the largest domestic producer of crawfish. About 1,600 Louisiana farmers produce 130-150 million pounds of crawfish per year with a combined value to producers of over $172 million, LSU AgCenter figures show.
