Bob Shuping, an aquaculturalist, won't be spreading fertilizer and praying for rain this spring. Instead, he'll be checking water temperatures and monitoring feeding times. Come April, Shuping hopes to harvest his first crop of Louisiana Red Swamp crawfish.

Shuping anticipates his initial investment of 1,000 crawfish, weighing about 50 pounds, will multiply into 500 to 700 pounds of meat per acre. And at $3 per pound, that's revenue of $15,000 to $21,000 a season. He got the idea after eating crawfish in Louisiana, where they're considered a delicacy.

But these are risks that Shuping is willing to take. When the conditions are right, Sutton says, crawfish are mostly self-sufficient. But, she recommends: "Check your cost. Do your research first."

Crawfish are not difficult to maintain, except for some minor variables in water temperature and feeding. "Feeding crawfish is really more of an art than science," Shuping says. "If you feed them too much, the water will foul. If you don't feed them enough, they'll be stunted."

If Shuping's crop lives -- and that's the hitch, he won't know until spring -- demand is expected to far outweigh supply. Last summer, Shuping says vendors at the Bayou Boogaloo, a Norfolk waterfront festival, sold 5,000 pounds of crawfish.

Restaurants and wholesalers are not the only ones looking to buy the creatures: There's a huge demand from bait shops. Fishermen buy them for 25 cents apiece because, Shuping explains, "They're excellent for catching bass."

For now, though, Shuping is waiting expectantly. And if the crawfish don't work out for him, there's always next year. He says he may try to grow kiwi fruit.

© April 1999, Media General Business Publications Inc.,
publisher of Virginia Business Magazine