Crawfish Season Begins
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
At least one Louisiana crawfish will have an opportunity to enjoy an extended life.
The official State Pardoning Of The Crawfish was ceremoniously proclaimed on Tuesday morning as Louisiana Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser officially kicked off the crawfish season at Tony Chachere’s Country Store.
Little Miss Crawfish queen Autumn Raymond of Breaux Bridge held up the newly-freed Tony The Crawfish crustacean who is scheduled to be introduced to the safety of a waterway inside a Louisiana State Park.
However, the millions of other crawfish who will soon be extracted from local ponds are destined to find their way into boiling pots full of seasoning, Nungesser told a chilly crowd that assembled outside.
Nungesser said the Louisiana crawfish industry provides a lucrative farm-to-table crop.
The state has about 1,600 crawfish farmers who provide over 150 million pounds of the product annually, said Samantha Carroll, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board.
Over the past 10 years Carroll said it has been customary for him to “pardon” a crawfish, similar to the occasions where U.S. presidents pardon a turkey before Thanksgiving.
Carroll explained that the visit from Nungesser annually saluted the state crawfish industry which celebrates its largest market opportunity from Mardi Gras to Easter.
St. Landry Parish Tourism Director Herman Fuselier said the crawfish farmer has always been a dominant parishwide economic factor.
“Crawfish along with Zydeco and the seasoning are both rooted so deeply within our culture,” Fuselier said.
Fuselier noted that the parish has received a recent influx of notoriety.
Valcour Records received a Grammy Award recently for distributing the best regional roots album that featured a number of Clifton Chenier classics, while National Geographic Magazine has published a feature on the Zydeco culture that prevails in St. Landry.
Also Fuselier noted the Monday night Louisiana Public Broadcasting 30-minute feature presentation that highlighted St. Landry.
The broadcast, Fuselier said, should be available on the YouTube channel.
