Scarce Bait May Cause Even Scarcer Crawfish for Easter

God gave Louisiana crawfish and Gulf Menhaden to catch them.  What God failed to do is correctly synchronize their harvest seasons. For the first time crawfish may not be on the Easter dinner menu because bait dealers have ran dry on fish in their warehouses. Photo: Ed Lallo/Lallo Photography

by Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News

God gave Louisiana crawfish and Gulf Menhaden to catch them.  What God failed to do is correctly synchronize the seasons for their harvest.  For the first time crawfish may not be on the Easter dinner menu because bait dealers have ran dry on fish in their warehouses.

Crawfish season starts to ramp up after the first of the year.  Net fishermen catch the Gulf Menhaden, often-called Pogie, April through the November. That doesn’t coincide with the surge and sales for the crawfish season running through May.

Shawn Switzer, manager of Louisiana Bait Products, stands in a full warehouse last year, and this month it is completely empty. Photo: Shaw Switzer/ LA Bait Products

The fish, which reaches nine inches at max, has become a hot property.  Besides used as a baitfish for crawfish, crabs, catfish and recreational fishermen, it is also in demand by companies producing protein for commercial uses.

“Our seasons just don’t align very well, it has nothing to do with the biomass of the species. Menhaden is a very prolific fish; the problems lie with the lack of vessels on the water fishing,” said Shawn Switzer, manager of Louisiana Bait Products. “This year our catch was normal, however because it was a really good crab season our supplies of Menhaden were lower than usual and I ran out earlier than normal.  I have been out for two-months now.”

Sitting on the banks of the Vermillion River, the company catches, processes and distributes more than 10-million pounds of Menhaden a year.

“We could have caught a good bit more if it weren’t for the hurricanes,” he said.

Although Hurricane Ida’s path avoided Abbeville, it and Tropical Storm Claudett, affected the company’s ability to be on the water harvesting, resulting in a loss of more than four weeks of fishing.

“The storms caused an economic injury as opposed to physical damage.  We lost a good month of fishing from the two storms this year.  Storms churn the water and spread the fish.  The muddy water makes it difficult for spotting pilots to see the fish,” he explained.

According to Daniel Edgar, owner of St. Mary Seafood in Franklin and one of five owner/partners in Louisiana Bait Products, thirty years ago baitfish was found not only in the Gulf of Mexico, but also the Great Lakes and the East and West Coasts.

“Thirty years ago baitfish was found not only in the Gulf of Mexico, but also the Great Lakes and the East and West Coasts,” said Daniel Edgar, Swamp People star, standing in his soft shell crab hatchery.  Photo: Ed Lallo/Lallo Photography

“Back then there was bait in every direction,” said the Swamp People star. As time went on many of those types of fish used for bait, like suckerfish and mackerel, have become food fish now.”

He attributes globalization for converting many baitfishes into consumer fish.  “With the Internet other countries are at our fingertips, so much so that everyone know where every fish is.  Fishermen have had to adjust.  This is just one of the causes of higher prices,” he explained.

Globalization, as well as the growing demand for the crustacean outside the state, has impacted crawfish. What once was a Louisiana exclusive is now enjoyed worldwide.

Edgar estimates Louisiana’s current bait consumption at 100-million pounds yearly.  He says in the past he has managed to keep his customers in bait without running out. “I don’t think it is going to happen this year. By the end of February or the first of March, it is going to be very, very close to having no bait at all.”

Affordable Infrastructure Solutions

Both Switzer and Edgar agree that the base of the problem lies in more affordable infrastructure solutions to store larger amounts of fish. To meet the current demand Switzer says his operation would have to store more than 5000 tons of the fish for several months.

“Putting that in perceptive we currently have a 35,000 square-foot freezer holding upwards of 1800 pallets of fish.  The electric bill is around $12,000 a month during the summer.  You can imagine what the costs would be to store 5000 tons of fish, even if we had the capacity,” he explained.

Gary Bauer, owner of Pontchartrain Blue Crab in Slidell, on his dock on Salt Bayou . Photo: Ed Lallo/Lallo Photography

As crawfish season begins, blue crab fishermen and processors have already experienced first hand the rising prices and shortage.

“We are out of bait, we are out of crabs, we are out of everything,” said Gary Bauer, owner of Pontchartrain Blue Crab in Slidell. “The last bait we got jumped up 20-cents a pound.  We were paying 40-cents and now it is up to sixty.  Our buyers have been questioning why the prices are going so high on crab and crab meat.”

According to the crab processor who ships mostly to the east coast, his fishermen use a lot of different baits.

“They use catfish heads, but that don’t work so well in the winter.  They use herring, but some people don’t like herring. They got the freshwater shad, but they might not have any till April.  Right now there are not many crabs, but the fisherman trying to get them don’t have the bait,” he explained.

Louisiana Blue Crabs being sorted on the docks of St. Mary Seafood. Photo: Ed Lallo/Lallo Photography

Bauer, a member of the Louisiana Fishing Community Recovery Coalition, says his fishermen are struggling to survive as the price of bait continues to rise; along with fuel, trap prices and labor. “The poor fishermen that were in the path of the storms are still struggling to get back up and running, and now this.  It’s an embarrassment that the government is not stepping up and helping these people.”

In Louisiana bait season is set in legislation but avenues are being explored to change the opening to earlier in March.

“Bait is typically an annual issue and freezer space has become part of the problem,” said Jason Adriance, a biologist with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. “It is a combination of storage shortages here, as well as demand issues for east coast supplies, where a lot of the bait comes from this time of year.”

He explained his office has regularly had requests over past years to open the season on Manhaden early. “Typically the season starts the first of April, but the Commission has been opening it in March in years when supplies become scarce.”

Industry Wide Shortage

“I’m hearing a lot of different things about east coast bait,” said Adlar Stelly of Stelly Crawfish who provides bait to crawfish farmers.  “Fishing regulations were changed, and trucking costs have risen to get it here. In addition our local guys have come up short this year.”

Eunice crawfisherman Peter LaFleur places a baited trap in his rice field pond while his son watches. Photo: Ed Lallo/Lallo Photography

Stelly has been an innovator on finding solutions to lack of freezer infrastructure by leasing space in Eunice, as well as at Bayou Land Seafood, for bait cold storage.  “This is not just a Louisiana problem, this has become a national problem,” he said

Adam Johnson of Bayou Land Seafood told Gulf Seafood News that Stelly, as well as a few crawfish farmers, have stockpiled bait in his freezer.

“Stelly has a truckload of Pogies in my freezer right now and couple of farmers have put in a few pallets as well. This is something I don’t usually do,” he explained. “I am doing this as a service to the people with whom I deal. Because of the impending bait shortage a lot of people have bought ahead trying to get through this one season.”

Gulf Menhaden sit in crates on a dock waiting to to be used. Photo: Ed Lallo/ Lallo Photography

Johnson thinks more innovative solutions to storing bait will have to be explored as the demand for crawfish grows.

“There is a concern by fishermen we may have an issue as we get toward the end the cycle of needing the bait. What we’ve seen has been an increase in price of about 50 percent,” said crawfish fisherman Chad Hanks of Layfayette.  “Speaking to a lot of the wholesale bait guys, a lot of this is also dictated by increased transportation cost.”

Hanks, who harvests out of rice field ponds, hopes that the industry will have enough bait for this year, but is very concerned about bait storage capacity in Louisiana and the East Coast.  He predicts crawfish prices will rise by five-cents a pound or more this year.

“That’s a lot,” he said. “When you look at it, its going to be between five-to-ten percent increase in cost.”

Ruben Hernandez and his daughter Maria harvest crawfish in a rice field pond near Eunice. The Hernandez’s are amongst thousands of H2B workers depended upon by the seafood industry. Photo Ed Lallo/Lallo Photography

This year the crawfish harvest started out with a bang in December and early January; numbers were nearing those usually achieved in March.  Warmer waters might have been a reason.

“This is the best volume we have every had this early in the season.  However recently we have lost approximately 70 percent of that volume.  For some reason we are not catching them now.  It’s all about what you catch in that cage at the end of day,” he said.

Linda Blanchard of Blanchard Seafood in St. Martinsville says she worries that basin crawfish fishermen may come out on the short end of the bait stick.  She said her company, which provides bait mostly to basin fishermen, has been receiving some shipments from the east coast.

“Basin fisherman have to buy bait every day,” she said. “If I don’t have bait, or others around me don’t have bait to sell to these fishermen, they can’t fish or have to use artificial.  I don’t know if that would work by itself.”

Blanchard says the east coast is also experiencing a shortage and prices will continue to rise. “One of my suppliers on the east coast said by the end of February he will be out.”

Ripple Effects

Eunice crawfisherman Joey Schneider holds a crawfish while H2B worker Ruben Hernandez enjoys the scene. Photo: Ed Lallo/Lallo Photography

According to Paul Begue of Enterprise Aquatics who represents Louisiana bait dealers on the coalition, “The shortage in one seafood industry has a ripple effect on others.  If Pogie boats can’t go out, or they have a limited catch, that limited catch is going to go to the highest bidder.”

He says this might be time for the crawfish industry to investigate new sources of bait, especially fresh water that traditionally has less demand.

Daniel Edgar feels the crawfish industry has been the biggest driver in demand for bait over the past 30-years.

Asian Carp fisherman Daniel Pierce with a boat loaded with the freshwater fish heading for the bait market. Photo: Facebook

“The crawfish industry is 100 times bigger than it was 30-years ago,” he said. “Mother nature gave Louisiana this animal, crawfish.  It is an amazing animal that fits our culture, it tastes good and it’s valuable.  Now the world wants to eat crawfish, not only Louisiana.

The demand for this crawfish is increasing annual, every year they want more and more.”

Switzer of Louisiana Bait Products agrees.  He also thinks the current bait shortage can also be attributed to the rising popularity of crawfish outside of Louisiana.

“A lot of the big rice farmers who also do crawfish have expanded their operations. They are doing everything themselves; marketing, processing and distributing their own product,” he explained. “They already have the trucks to haul them to other states, so the demand outside of Louisiana continues to rise.”

The increase in bait price will no doubt work its way through the supply chain to the restaurants where consumers will be paying higher prices. Worker with fresh boiled crawfish. Photo: Ed Lallo/Lallo Photography

When asked if this years crawfish harvest will be affected by the bait shortage, he paused before saying, “Short answer, yes. I have talked to crawfish farmers who have told me they are not fishing right now because they can’t get the bait, regardless of what it cost.”

The increase in bait price will no doubt work its way through the supply chain to the restaurants where consumers will be paying higher prices.

“I’ve heard there are a few restaurants that are not buying crawfish anymore because prices are too high, but those in high end areas continue to have full parking lots,” Switzer said.  “The question will be what prices are the crawfish eating publ2ic willing to tolerate?”

Tags: Bayou Land Seafood, Blanchard Seafood, blue crabs, crawfish, Daniel Edgar, Enterprise Aquatics, Featured, Louisiana Bait Products, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Louisiana Fishing Community Recovery Coalition, Pontchartrain Blue Crab, St. Mary Seafood, Swamp People