Winter Weather Freezes Crawfish Production

The winter storms have weighed heavy on the production of crawfish this season. Ash Wednesday normally turns Catholic and Christian people to eating crawfish in order to avoid eating red meat. However, this recent historic cold winter has led farmers to a halt.
A Crowley farmer has not been able to visit his ponds since the 12th of February. All the farmers can do at this time is wait and hope for warmer days to begin production again.
“Right now, we’re completely shut down,” said Alan Lawson, who is a crawfish farmer. “I’ve never seen anything shut down like this ever.”
The cold waters are not the only thing the farmers are worried about, the muddy and slippery conditions is not safe either.
“You can’t just send somebody out in this weather,” said Lawson. “It’s dangerous in those boats, it’s slippery, it’s icy, it’s cold. And then you are not going to catch anything when the water’s this cold. They’re just not going to move; you’re not going to catch anything.”
The weather plays a crucial part in this business, so at this time its just a waiting game with mother nature.
“They’re probably buried in the mud, we probably won’t have any number of crawfish for a week or two, until the water warms back up,” said Lawson. ‘We have to get some good warm days and some sunshine, to get back to some production.”
Losing one week at the highest production will most likely weigh heavy on the rest of the crawfish season.
“Just because we’ve lost a week here at the peak part of the season doesn’t mean at the end,” he said. “When the weather gets hot, the crawfish will bury and the season’s over. If you lose a week, you lost it.”
Lawson told news reporters if the days ahead becomes sunny, this halt may only last just a week. However, if these conditions continue with overcast days and temperatures plunging during the night hours, the stop to crawfish production may last even longer. Lawson still motivate people to purchase tail meat and cook an etouffee, as this will continue to keep the crawfish chain moving ahead.