LAFAYETTE, La. –
Blue Crab season is about to take a break. Starting next Monday, crabbers will not be able to trap blue crab for 30 days. The ban is designed to help replenish the crab population.
“You know, to be honest with you, it’s probably the best thing for the crab industry down here. Putting a ban and a season on it, all it’s going to do is create a better product and more of it,” says Andre Leger, owner of Chez Francois Seafood.
A seafood sales boom during Lent is something Leger and others in the seafood industry look forward to, but according to Leger, blue crabs are not part of that equation.
“The season is not really going to come until April or May. What happens is– those crabs go into the deeper water for the winter time and in the springtime,” says Leger, “they’re going to start to come back into the mating process and shedding and growing.”
Leger says seafood connoisseurs who eat crabs in the next month may notice a difference in taste.
“Well, we have some put up in the freezer, so you won’t be able to buy them fresh,” says Leger.
The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries will put the ban in place again next year and in 2019. It’s a decision Leger applauds.
“They’re going about it in the right way. I’m sure there are studies that have been done,” says Leger. “Everything that comes out of the wild has to be reported to the wildlife and fisheries with a trip ticket, and they study it. There’s a reason for putting the season.”