ABBEVILLE, La. — This week, CRAWDAQ is in Vermilion Parish, where the crawfish industry has quite a history.
Throughout the week, I've spoken to several people about what makes Vermilion Parish different than other parishes when it comes to crawfish, and nearly everyone has told me the same thing: the history.
The people of this parish have been farming, fishing and boiling crawfish for a very long time, and with that comes good and bad.
"Vermilion Parish has been processing crawfish a lot longer than some of the other parishes. I think, I don't know, these older ponds get affected a little bit more by the disease and obviously the saltwater intrusion," said Don Benoit, owner of D & T Crawfish.
That's something else to note about Vermilion Parish: the extra obstacles within the crawfish industry.
"So, the drought really caused the saltwater intrusion. Okay, typically we have a lot of rainfall that comes down, and that flows through this whole Mermentau Basin and keeps the Grand Lake and White Lake—that marshland to the south—keeps it fairly fresh, but without that rainfall, saltwater got into the system and just kept working its way north and got into a lot of the irrigation canals, so many farms did have a saltwater issue with some of their irrigation canals," said Mark Shirley, crawfish specialist at LSU AgCenter and Louisiana Sea Grant.
And other issues could be presenting themselves soon.
"The White Spot Virus will kill the crawfish, but typically, it affects crawfish that are under stress, so when we get into warmer water temperature and lower oxygen conditions, and a lot of times they run out of food on into April, those conditions stress a crawfish, and those are crawfish that seem to be more affected by the White Spot," Shirley said.
But the good parts of a long history are places like Richard's Seafood Patio, a crawfish spot that's been around for more than 65 years, passed down from father to son.
"It started off as a fresh seafood market. He would sell fresh fish, fresh turtle meat, and then he decided to start boiling crawfish, so he screen in this area, and he started boiling crawfish. That's why we call it 'the seafood patio,'" said Calvin Richard, owner of Richard's Seafood Patio. "He was the first in Vermilion Parish. We're thinking he was the first to ever sell crawfish in a restaurant because we've found no other restaurants that were selling in 1957 that we can find."
All these years later, with a menu and buffet bar full of seafood and Cajun favorites, Richard's is still going strong.
"It's wonderful because a lot of people—because of the drought and the supply of crawfish not being there, the price being—I mean, this business has been here 65 years. We have never paid to the fishermen what we've had to or charged to our customers what we've had to, so for the fact of them still coming and, you know, keeping their business with us, it says a lot, and it means a lot to us, you know, and it's just wonderful," said Roxanne Gilton, general manager at Richard's Seafood Patio.
For this week's full report on Lafayette and Vermilion Parishes, click here.
Check back in every Thursday night for your CRAWDAQ Index update.
