Thanks to a plentiful supply and prices dropping, Erik Donnaud of the Seafood Pot in Destrehan expects one of the best years for crawfish that he’s ever seen.

“It’s looking great,” Donnaud said. “It’s very plentiful.”

Both Donnaud and Willie Hebert, owner of Hebert’s Seafood in Boutte, say the price is already down $2 a pound for crawfish from the same time last year. Donnaud added this tells him that there’s a lot of crawfish on the market.

“Crawfish prices are cheaper than I’ve seen in 15 years,” Donnaud said. “It seems like there’s crawfish everywhere. All signs point to a real good year.”

At the Crawfish Pot, boiled crawfish are selling for $4.79 a pound and $2.99 a pound live. He expects those prices to fall by next week.

At Hebert’s, the price is $2.99 live and $4.99 boiled.

“It’s looking good,” Hebert said. “Everybody’s getting their little fix and, when the price starts coming down, they’ll start doing the home boils.”

Donnaud said the price dropped $1 a pound last week, which is rare. It typically drops around 25 cents.

Even the crawfish size is improving faster than usual at this time of year.

Donnaud said the crop is so plentiful that the fishermen have to select the bigger ones for the market because customers are passing on the smaller ones. This is good, he added, because the smaller ones stay in the water for the next year.

Hebert agreed.

He’s optimistic about an abundant supply due to warmer temperatures from September through October that could lend to a record year.

“As long as it stays warmer, I believe we will see one of the better years we’ve seen in a while,” he said. “If the price is cheaper it helps everybody.”

Because crawfish fetched a higher price in the past, Donnaud said the Super Bowl wasn’t typically a big seller for them. He expects to be able to fill all orders this year, as well as for his bigger selling times of Lent and Mardi Gras.

“We’re ready for it, hope everybody is and hope everybody is hungry for them,” he said. “Everybody gets to enjoy them.”