The Lutz Report: How drought is destroying the US crawfish sector
March 28, 2024
Professor C. Greg Lutz, in LSU's School of Renewable Natural Resources, describes the toll that recent droughts are taking on crawfish farming in the south in his recent article published on The Fish Site.
Over the past ten years, crawfish have become one of the most valuable sectors in US aquaculture. However, crawfish populations are highly vulnerable to changes in precipitation.
"This 2023- 2024 season," Lutz writes, "is a sobering illustration of how severe those impacts can be."
Lutz describes the mechanisms of crawfish aquaculture, drought impacts, and a prognosis of the current crawfish situation, concluding that "Louisiana’s crawfish aquaculture industry will experience impacts from the 2023 drought for several seasons before an economic recovery is complete."