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Crawfish season heating up after slow start High prices expected to fall, retailers say
BY IANNE SALVOSA Staff writer
As many families enjoy crawfish boils to kick off the start of the 40-day Lenten observance, mudbug peddlers say prices are on their way down after early season spikes. Cold spells and labor challenges led to some vendors delaying sales, but they now expect supply and prices to return to normal by Easter. The crawfish season looked “optimistic” in early December. Then across the state, 2026 kicked off with freezing temperatures, which caused the crustaceans to burrow themselves deep in the mud, slowing their growth, movement and consequently, their harvest. But the weather has since warmed up.
STAFF PHOTO By ENAN CHEDIAK
Caleb Izdepski, left, and Tyler Loeb record data on Feb. 12 at a research site in the marshlands near Hopedale.
UNLOCKING MYSTERIES OF THE MARSH
ä See CRAWFISH, page 13A
Unique project provides deep insights into state’s sinking soil along the coast
BY MIKE SMITH Staff writer
A skinny bayou curves between thick reeds of marsh grass, revealing a spot hidden deep in the muck with an importance far greater than its surroundings would suggest. Standing atop wooden planks, Caleb Izdepski and Tyler Loeb pull up chunks of soil samples and take measurements to help gauge the rise and fall of the land here. It is one tiny part of a giant research effort constantly in motion, unique worldwide and key to unlocking the mysteries of the Louisiana marsh. “It’s the only one of its kind in the world, really,” Melissa Hymel, a scientist with the state’s coastal authority, said while on the visit to the site accessible only by boat, located near Hopedale in St. Bernard Parish. Largely unknown outside the scientific community, the project is now in its 20th year, stretching from the chenier plains of the state’s southwest
Roof program can’t keep up with demand
MEASURING THE MARSH
Louisiana’s network of 390 coastal monitoring stations is unique worldwide and has become key to a wide range of scientific research. Now in its 20th year, the network is deepening understanding of Louisiana’s land loss crisis, among other subjects.
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Baton Rouge
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Slidell
Only 20% of homeowners awarded grant
Lafayette
BY SAM KARLIN Staff writer
Source: Coastwide Reference Monitoring System
to the sinking soils at the Mississippi’s mouth. Its ever-accumulating mountain of data has become key to a broad range of research, including studies helping deepen the state’s
Nearly three years since the start of a state program to dole out grants for homeowners to get stronger roofs, the number of people seeking help is far outstripping the money available. The state’s fortified roof grant program has emerged as a popular solution to rising homeowners insurance costs, which have culminated in a crisis that is threatening
Staff graphic
understanding of its land loss crisis. It is all posted online for anyone to view, enabling scientists across the world to use it. If a publicist would’ve named it, the network of
390 sites might be called something flashy. Instead, it carries a humble but precise moniker only a scientist could love: the Coastwide
ä See MARSH, page 9A
ä See PROGRAM, page 10A
WEATHER HIGH 60 LOW 35 PAGE 8B
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