| [Image: crawfish trap] |
| [Image: Temperature controlled culture room] |
| [Image: Experimental crawfish ponds] |
The Aquaculture Project at the Rice Research Station conducts research associated with aspects of crawfish production. Because the rice station is located in the heart of the crawfish producing region and because rice culture plays an integral part in the farming of crawfish -- since much of the crawfish acreage is double-cropped with rice, or rice is planted solely as a food resource in crawfish ponds -- it is only natural that this project coexist as part of the Rice Research Station.
Research is directed mainly at production of the red swamp crawfish (Procambarus clarkii), which dominates the Louisiana crawfish industry. Some basic research on the biology of crawfish is conducted, such as studying reproduction, burrowing and growth responses of the animal. However, much of the research conducted in this project is applied – that is, research is designed to address certain issues important to crawfish farmers dealing with production problems and/or efficiency of production. Issues associated with harvesting, stocking, water quality, crop integration, and forage and population management continue to be objectives of research.
The primary assets of the Aquaculture Project include 24 1-acre experimental ponds. These ponds, located at the South Unit of the Rice Research Station, are designed and operated as low-levee, precision-leveled, shallow-water crawfish ponds typical of the commercial rice-crawfish field rotational systems common to the region. Each pond has an independent water inlet and outlet, and ponds are contiguous in each of two adjacent, but separated, tracts. These tracts (or group of ponds) are currently employed in an annual rotation pattern representative of commercial rice-crawfish operations. Support facilities include a dry laboratory, a wet laboratory, in-pond enclosures and various specialized instruments and equipment.
The Aquaculture Project of the Rice Research Station collaborates closely with the Crawfish Project of the Aquaculture Research Station(www.lsuagcenter.com/en/our_offices/research_stations/Aquaculture/) located near the campus in Baton Rouge. The experimental crawfish ponds of the Aquaculture Research Station are designed and managed as typical permanent ponds where rice is not harvested, and crawfish production occurs in the same physical location each year. Therefore, between the Rice and Aquaculture Research Stations, research capabilities exist to simulate the vast majority of commercial crawfish aquaculture production conditions.