I’m wondering if anyone has done any further research or experiments with crayfish culture… particularly in northern areas.
I know from my own discussion with Sepp that he cultures Astacus Astacus, or the “Noble Crayfish”, which aren’t available in North America. During our conversation last April, Sepp expressed a lot of enthusiasm about the possibilities of crayfish culture; he sees it as a high value, niche market, and considers that they are very easy and low maintenance to raise. Given a long shoreline, and sufficient depth to prevent a complete freeze, they will propagate, and overwinter even in cold climates.
I’ve done some research into native North American species, and there seem to be several possibilities, depending on where you live. For our purposes, the Northern Crayfish (Orconectes Virilis) looks like the most promising species.
At the bottom of this post, I've attached a map of their range, and a picture of the Northern Crayfish.
This website contains some good basic information about them:
http://el.erdc.usace.army.mil/ansrp/ANSIS/html/orconectes_virilis_northern_crayfish.htm
I had no idea that crayfish culture was such a huge industry in the southern U.S. – apparently the second largest aquaculture industry in the US!
I don’t think many folks are doing it in the northern parts yet, but according to this study, there’s good potential:
http://www.ncrac.org/files/technical_bulletins/tb112.pdf
It all looks good on paper, but I’d really like to hear from anyone who has actually tried doing it.
Sepp will be here in May, and if I can get permission from local authorities (it’s illegal to possess crayfish since the Rusty Crayfish, an invasive species, was discovered in Manitoba), I know that he will be keen to see us develop waterscapes for aquaculture.
I also wonder about how to market them – Sepp seemed to think that with a significant Russian and Eastern European population in Winnipeg, we’d have no trouble marketing them, but even so, would consumers buy them live? Or would they want them processed?
Any insights welcome!
