Dickie Breaux of Café des Aimee spoke of history of crawfish particularly as related to Breaux family. People were eating crawfish prior to 1934 in the area (Breaux Bridge), as noted in an article in the Beaumont Enterprise newspaper. Two sisters at the Hebert Hotel who were cooking a crawfish dish, they called crawfish courtbuouillon. People rode the train to Breaux Bridge to eat it. When they stopped cooking, there was no crawfish available in restaurants until about 1942-43 when Ilene Champagne opened a restaurant. At that time, you would not be seen eating crawfish in public, unless you were with friends or relatives, crawfish was considered poor man’s food. One day Ilene was preparing a crawfish dish (from the Hebert sister receipt) for herself when someone came in and asked what was she doing. She told him she was smothering crawfish—and thus the name of the dish developed into crawfish etouffe.
Pierre Part does not like the idea that Breaux Bridge is called crawfish capital of the world since Pierre Part is in the swamp and live with the crawfish. Breaux Bridge deserve the title because it took someone of courage to start serving crawfish dishes.

There was a stigma attached to eating crawfish in public. Restaurants such as Riverside Inn served patrons in private dining compartments so they would not be seen eating crawfish. Oil industry folks from Oklahoma and Texas came to Louisiana and made fun of people eating mudbugs, which they had observed only in sewage ponds. However, by this time crawfish were being fished in the Basin.

14:29: Conni Castille: In 1959, Breaux Bridge wanted to put on a birthday party since the town was turning one hundred years old. Senator Robert Angelle had a resolution passed to declare Beaux Bridge crawfish capital of the world. The celebration was such a success that it was decided to make a crawfish festival an annual event. A crawfish archives at the Breaux Bridge public library houses information from these events.

17:16 Dona Richard - Tourism Director of St. Martin Parish and a Crawfish Festival volunteer: spoke of the publicity that has made the festival a well-known event. In 1964, a live report on the CBS evening news with the well-known anchor Dan Rather was aired from down town Breaux Bridge. The publicity that the festival brings to Breaux Bridge cannot be converted into a dollar amount. The festival gives a positive image to the outside world. By Laws of the festival state, that all musical entertainment must have a fiddle or an accordion as part of the group in order to maintain the authenticity of true Cajun culture. All crawfish sold at the festival must be certified Louisiana crawfish.

25:40 Anthony Arceneaux of Hawk’s Restaurant discussed the method used at his restaurant to purge crawfish. He narrated as slides showed his method. He first visited Texas A&M University to see a process developed there, began using the process and has since upgraded the method three times. Crawfish come from a muddy field and need to be cleaned. Purging is costlier but the crawfish come out cleaner, tastier and prettier to serve, making it a better product. By late 70’s he realized money could be made farming crawfish. At 15 Arceneaux borrowed money to start a crawfish farming business. By 1983, the market was saturated with crawfish, so he decided to open a restaurant. As a farmer, he remembers selling crawfish for 17 cents a pound just to get rid of them. The fact that crawfish is seasonal adds to their lore, not always being available makes us want crawfish more. Numerous magazine, including New York Times, USA Today, have published articles about Hawk’s Restaurant. Gourmet Magazine voted Hawk’s as the best farm to table restaurant.

42:20 Mark Shirley, County Agent LSU Ag Center --If given a human characteristic crawfish could be considered tenacious, much like a Cajun. As county agent Shirley, works with crawfish farmers, processing plants and others groups that deal with crawfish helping them produce a better crop for people to enjoy. Shirley narrated as slides were shown. There are about thirty-five species of crawfish in Louisiana. The white river crawfish and the red swamp crawfish are the most common in Louisiana. A sack of crawfish from the basin probably has some of both species. The Atchafalaya River is a distributary of the Red and Mississippi Rivers, part of the Mississippi watershed. Water usually starts rising in January- February flushing crawfish out. Peak season of the Atchafalaya Basin crawfish is May-June-July. Farm ponds are flooded earlier, in the fall, so that there is a supply of crawfish some times in winter. Basin crawfish production has been erratic in the last ten years. Peak seasons were in the ‘90s. Some areas of the basin have silted in, hampering crawfishing. Crawfishing got started with the basin production, rice farmers got started as an alternative means of making money with the fields. Approximately 173,000 acres of land are used in crawfish production. The flat land of southwest Louisiana is excellent terrain for crawfish ponds. Some farmers alternate crops of rice and crawfish some do both at same time, the strategy depends on the farmer. Levees are built, irrigation and drainage are put in, fields are flooded in April- June, and mature crawfish added. Source of crawfish is not as important as the health of the crawfish; the determining factor is survival so that in the fall babies can be hatched. Ponds are drained, crawfish burrow into levees until fields flooded in fall. Babies that are hatched but once the weather turns cold they stop growing, Crawfish eat everything. In 3-5 months, they grow enough to be harvested but depending on weather. Water temperature determines when crawfish will be active and come out of their burrows. 1999 and 2000 were years when price of crawfish were high. There was a severe drought and issues with rice chemicals. Prices fluctuate year to year and within a year. Peak production is March-May when 2/3 of pond crops are harvested. There are usually 10-15 traps per acre. Cajun ingenuity has improved the methods of harvesting. A grading system has been difficult to establish. Price depends on demand and size. Chinese crawfish has effected the processing market causing some of smaller processors to go out of business. Until Chinese crawfish came on the market, Louisiana shipped its biggest and best crawfish to Sweden then China took over. Crawfish farming is more dependable than the wild fishing. It is a good green industry. The Cajun belt of influence (area where 90% of crawfish consumed) is the distance a driver can go to deliver live crawfish, usually a 6-8 hour drive. Crawfish research is done at aquaculture research center south of LSU and at the rice station research center in Crowley.

A question and answer session provided the following info: about 1988-90 the soft shell crawfish idea developed. It is a very labor-intensive process; involving watching the crawfish for the exact time of molting, so they are not eaten by other crawfish.

A female crawfish is distinguished by having between the last two pair walking legs a round structure where the eggs are extruded. A male crawfish has the first two pair swimmerets stiff and lay between walking legs. A large female crawfish can produce about 500 babies, the average size female 2-300 babies.
The variation in the color of a crawfish depends on the age. Until maturity, a crawfish will molt 12-15 times, after maturity once or twice a year. The average life span is usually 1-2 years in wild, everything out there likes to eat crawfish, especially when molting.

It takes a good 24-48 hours to purge crawfish, pouring salt on them cleans the outside not the inside, does nothing to purge the digestive track.
About 1/3 pound of cut fish is used as bait in a trap or an artificial bait can be used when temperature warms up.
Red swamp crawfish were first used in Japan as a pet then got loose and became an invasive species in Thailand and China. Farmers growing rice and crawfish in the same fields must be conscious of the pesticides they use.

Conni Castille spoke on behalf of crawfish men of the basin who are facing issues of water quality and access rights. Figures show that crawfish production in the basin is declining because of environmental challenges. Water quality of the basin is being affected by pipelines being installed and not maintained according to the permits granted. The flow of water coming into the basin is causing siltation, resulting in dead zones developing. Companies are buying land and not allowing access to the lands for fishing or hunting purposes. Because of these issues, areas for fishing are becoming limited.