Crawfish are known by many names from crayfish to stonecrab. Their culture dates back to the late 1700s when they were reared as gourmet items. They are native in freshwater of all continents except Africa and have been introduced there. Crawfish vary in size at maturity from the dwarf crawfish, less than 1 inch in length, to a Tasmanian species which reaches weights of over 8 pounds.
Colors vary from a light cream color through yellow, blue, red and green to black.
In the early 1930s, Percy Viosca published recommendations for raising crawfish in ponds in Louisiana. Since that time, interest in culturing crawfish has increased steadily and over 131,000 acres of ponds were reported in the United States in 1990. Total harvest figures are difficult to obtain, but it is estimated that in the United States harvest exceeds 100 million pounds per year. Most of the crawfish consumed in the United States is from Louisiana, although other states have begun to culture crawfish in the past 10 years. The market for crawfish in Europe has become accustomed to crawfish grown in the United States and exports are increasing steadily.