Crawfish Prices Soaring

SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) - If you have a hankering for mudbugs
you'll have to spend more to satisfy it.
Crawfish prices are high and production is about half of what it
was a year ago.
According to the LSU AgCenter, hurricanes Gustav and Ike, and a
drought last year, played a part.
Prices for boiled crawfish ranged from $4.99 to $5.99 a pound
last week in the Shreveport-Bossier City area.
Mark Shirley of the AgCenter says hurricane debris such as
leaves and grass remained in some flooded ponds for weeks following
Hurricane Gustav, sucking up the oxygen in the water and choking
crawfish.
In southwestern Louisiana, crawfish farmers were hit by a
drought.
In Vermilion and lower Iberia parishes, Ike's storm surge sent
salt water into as much as 4,000 acres of crawfish ponds.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)