The 2013 crawfish season in the Atchafalaya Basin is one of the worst on record so far. Fishermen and their families who depend on crawfishing for their livelihood are hoping that when more water begins to come down the Mississippi and into the Basin, things will improve. We don’t know how much snowmelt we can expect this year, but we hope it’s enough to raise the water level in the Basin to a sufficient extent to get currents circulating and get a north-to-south flow going, with water rich in nutrients and dissolved oxygen–the two most important characteristics of high-quality water potentially productive of a healthy environment and a good catch. The water must be free to move freely through the swamps and bayous. In a show I did in Lafayette today I explained that crawfishing in the Basin is the last remaining cultural activity of French-speaking Cajuns that has not been kidnapped, adulterated, and dis-authenticated by the rest of the world, as Cajun cooking, dancing and music have. It would be tragic, I believe, if we Cajuns lost our long-standing ability to earn a living from the waterways and the big woods of the Atchafalaya. Very few young people are choosing to become crawfishers when they leave high school these days. Since they can’t reliably make a living that way, they choose to go into other kinds of work, though it has always been clear that many of them would far prefer to follow the path set by their parents and grandparents. In essence they no longer have a choice. With the cost of gasoline, crawfish bait, outboard engines and welded aluminum boats at an all-time high, they just can’t afford to get into fishing and crawfishing. These activities, as satisfying as they were in the good years of the past, are out of reach to the young and have become the nearly-exclusive province of much older Cajuns. Of course, far more crawfish have been produced, in the last couple of decades at least, on crawfish farms outside the Basin. It’s what goes on inside the Basin that concerns me at this time.
Sinker cypress pirogue project: Traditional boat builder Faren Serrette of Cecilia is building a full-sized sinker cypress pirogue from wood that I gave him a few weeks ago. When this 14-foot water craft is completed, it will be raffled to raise operating funds for the non-profit organization Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, the most effective group working on restoring the environmental health and productivity of the Basin for hunters, sport and commercial fishers, bird watchers and anyone who enjoys a beautiful and tranquil swamp experience, while at the same time fighting to protect the cypress trees that are a large part of our Cajun heritage and are always in danger of being clear cut by big landowners wanting to convert them into garden mulch. It’s a never-ending fight to save these trees for our own future and that of our children and grandchildren. The Atchafalaya Basin was totally clear cut of all its marketable timber a hundred years ago. That was a tragic mistake, and we should have learned by now that it doesn’t need to be done again. Join Basinkeeper and help us put an end to this potential tragedy. For more information on Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, go to www.basinkeeper.org An announcement about the pirogue raffle will be made on this blog site and elsewhere probably in the fall of this year, or sooner, if Faren gets to work on this rare and valuable boat.
Through the generosity of the Reilly Family Foundation of Baton Rouge, Lamar Advertising is donating to Basinkeeper a full-sized billboard for a year at no charge whatever. Many people are unaware of Basinkeeper and its courageous activities, but a billboard of 15-by-50-foot dimensions in the Baton Rouge area should make thousands of Louisiana people, as well as outsiders, conscious of the fact that we exist. Membership in this non-profit organization is now approaching 600. The more members we have, the more good we can do in the Atchafalaya. Please consider joining us before it’s too late to save the Basin. Basic membership is $30 a year.