I thought, naively, the same thing as one of my colleagues: “I didn’t know a crawfish shortage was possible!”
Bolstered by reports from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries of the state supplying the masses with between 100 and 120 million pounds of crawfish a year, I took the abundance of these “mudbugs” for granted.
According to a report from CNN’s Rachel Ramirez, apparently a crawfish shortage is indeed possible, and it’s happening right now. On March 6, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry issued a disaster declaration, parts of which will offer low interest loans to those in the crawfish business.
What’s to blame? Record-setting droughts have dried up the waters where crawfish fester and flourish. In a statement, Landry said, “365,000 crawfish acres in Louisiana have been affected by these conditions,” including the fruitful behemoth: Atchafalaya River basin.
Prior to the disaster, seafood markets like Porgy’s in New Orleans were paying $1.75 a pound from suppliers for fresh, live crawfish, as opposed to this year when those prices are now $2.35 per pound. New Orleans-based WGNO News, an ABC affiliate, curated a “Crawfish price index,” and as of May 23, the average price for a pound of boiled crawfish floated around $5.