Crawfish and Crawfish Festivals in the Pacific Northwest

Abstract

A crawfish industry has existed in the Pacific Northwest since at least 1893. The hearth of the signal crawfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus)—and the core of the commercial crawfish industry—was Oregon's Willamette Valley and lower Columbia River. The industry has spread eastward, to Oregon's Lake Billy Chinook and Washington's Snake River. In Oregon, the 2004–2018 average annual harvest of 82,360 pounds was slightly above its 1893–1956 average, but Washington's was less than five percent of that. Recreational crawfishing is popular in both states, and crawfish have become more abundant in seafood markets, in restaurants, and at festivals. The increase in crawfish popularity is attributed in part to culinary trends such as Cajun and Asian-Cajun cuisine, but also to the in-migration of Southerners and ethnic Asians. Nine crawfish festivals in the Pacific Northwest include the oldest crawfish festival in the USA (Tualatin) and newly created festivals. George H. Lewis's rationally constructed food festival theory, in which festivals are linked to specific social goals, is used as a framework to understand these festivals and their origins. Festival managers were interviewed, and Lewis's theory was modified to include generational changes in the role of an iconic species in regional identity.