Ten years ago, when the property across from his house on the outskirts of New Iberia became available, Stephen Minvielle sold his thriving automotive business to his employees and waded into the aquaculture of crawfish farming. Photo: Ed Lallo/Louisiana Seafood News
by Ed Lallo/Louisiana Seafood News
Standing on a rickety wooden platform at the edge of more than 80 acres of water, rice and natural grasses, Stephen Minvielle surveys his crop – as best he can.
The problem is that he doesn’t know how it’s doing.
“With rice, corn or any grain crops, an untrained observer can stand at the edge of a field and theorize by the look of the crop whether production levels will be good or bad,” explained the 52-year old Minvielle.
With this crop, “you stand at the edge of a crawfish pond and you have no earthly idea.”
Such is the uncertainty of farming freshwater crustaceans.
Ten years ago, the property across from his house on the outskirts of New Iberia became available. So, Minvielle sold his thriving automotive business to his employees and waded into the aquaculture of crawfish farming.
From Cow Pasture to Crawfish Hotels
Standing on a rickety wooden platform at the edge of more than 80 acres of water, rice and natural grasses, Stephen Minvielle surveys his crop – as best he can. Photo: Ed Lallo/Louisiana Seafood News
“The land was actually a cow pasture before I built the levees, partitions – hotels for crawfish to hibernate,” he said.
Minvielle put in a pumping system and seeded it with a few crawfish. “The first year I had a fantastic year – harvesting giant crawfish.”
With a big head and feeling like the master of the industry, he soon learned “Mother Nature tends to give you a slap of reality and says you better pay attention.”
Temperature and moisture are the two critical ingredients for a successful crawfish harvest, whether pond or wild grown.
“As we have seen this year, Mother Nature has already thrown a number of curve balls, with Hurricanes Isaac and Sandy,” said Minvielle, director of the Louisiana Crawfish Farmers Association. “We kind of wonder when the sucker punch is coming to us.”
Free-Market Enterprise
Temperature and moisture are the two critical ingredients for a successful crawfish harvest, whether pond or wild grown. Photo: Ed Lallo/Louisiana Seafood News
With 1,400 to 1,600 wild harvesters and just as many farmers, crawfish is one of the true, free-market enterprises – receiving no government price supports of any kind.
While crawfish farmers often wait impatiently to bring in their crops, wild harvesters in the Atchafalaya Basin lay traps close to trees, anchored down so currents won’t wash them away
A seafood product of the state that must be documented with trip tickets, wild trapping is a lot harder and not nearly as efficient, but a harvester can often catch larger volumes at times.
They are strictly at the mercy of Mother Nature to control the quality and conditions of the water.
“There is no limit on catching wild crawfish,” he said. “It comes down to as much as your back can stand lifting and your boat can float.”
In the summer months, crawfish burrow two to three feet into clay soil and cover their hole. During hibernation, mama crawfish lays one to 700 eggs and nurtures them in the first stages of life.
Fall Rain Brings the Crawfish
In the fall, she will dig herself out of the burrow, with ant- sized young attached to her tail.
Water is important to crawfish crop. Water temperature is continuously monitored as well as the aeration system. Photo: Ed Lallo/Louisiana Seafood News
It’s an old wives’ tale about ‘the clap of thunder calling the crawfish,’” said Minvielle. “Actually, it is the fall rains that soften the plugs and allows the mamma and babies to crawl to the surface.”
Crawfish harvest starts officially starts in November, with the peak from February through May. Even though prices are higher in November and December, Minvielle does not start his harvest until January, allowing the crawfish to grow to optimal size.
“It takes 120 days for baby to grow to a market size that customers prefer,” he said. “When I start harvesting, I will be getting anywhere between 20 to 40 nice size crawfish in each trap.”
On his 80 acres, he Minvielle has more than 1,200 pyramid traps spaced 15 to 20 feet apart. To keep costs low, harvesting is a one-man operation, using a wheel boat. The harvester pulls and empties a trap, then replaces it with a new one.
“It is nothing like driving a car,” said the former automotive businessman. “You steer with your feet and pick with your hands. It is a continuous perpetual motion.
Gaining New Markets
With 1,400 to 1,600 wild harvesters and just as many farmers, crawfish is one of the true, free-market enterprises – receiving no government price supports of any kind. Photo: Ed Lallo/Louisiana Seafood News
“Sold in sacks weighing 30 to 35 pounds, crawfish is gaining nationwide attention. Production and sales are up more than 50 percent from 10 years ago.
As Cajuns moved to distant cities after Hurricane Katrina, new markets are beginning to emerge for the mudbug. Cajuns in Memphis, Little Rock, Dallas and Austin now regularly demand crawfish from their local fish market.
To meet new demands, the Louisiana State Crawfish Research and Promotion Board funded a number of projects. Minvielle, the board’s executive director, said they include research into frozen crawfish boiled whole, as well as automated processing.
“One of the hurdles we have with crawfish is everything is hand-labor intensive,” he said. “With the massive amount of pounds we are selling, we are getting more efficient, which is good.
“But, it also puts us in the predicament of not being able to move the product in a judicious time period.”
That is why the automated peeling machine is important to the industry – along with frozen, pre-cooked whole-boil crawfish. “We are working at bring our industry, dragging and kicking, into the 21st century.”
Crawfish “Go Green”
Producing nearly 1.5 million pounds of processed tail mat annually, crawfish is being securitized by a number of environmental groups – the results are all good.
“We are pushing crawfish as a sustainable crop,” Minvielle said. “We are reaching out to number of organizations for assistance in putting crawfish on ‘the green agenda.’
To keep costs low, harvesting is a one-man operation, using a wheel boat. The harvester pulls and empties a trap, then replaces it with a new one. Photo: Ed Lallo/Louisiana Seafood News
The Monterrey Bay Aquarium of California has listed crawfish as the number- one-ranked, sustainable grown aquaculture crop in the United States.
And why?
Because “it loves to eat microorganisms, it’s not intrusive, and produces water-quality enhancement,” according to Minvielle.
If crazy regulations don’t come out of left field and the vigor of the Louisiana crawfish industry continues, he sees a 25-percent growth in the next decade in both consumer interest and production.
With that kind of attention, crawfish certainly will become a much more visible crop – in the marketplace, that is.
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