Abstract

A spread sheet model was developed to assess commercial viability of eyestalk ablation to produce soft shell crayfish. The model was designed to allow the user to change many of the variables associated with an economic analysis of a commercial venture. Because length of time to molt after eyestalk ablation varies by species, time of year, stage of maturity, water temperature, and sex, three molt periods were separately modeled - 10 days, 14 days and 18 days. The model is designed around a production scheme that harvests soft shell crayfish and adds eyestalk ablated crayfish to the system of trays each day. The model is also useful in determining the influence of many production variables on profitability. The most important variables were the survival rate of ablated crayfish and the length of time to molt following ablation. Also important were the number of days the facility was operated, the price paid for soft shell crayfish, and the amount of crayfish stocked into the system each day. Factors less important to profitability were price of crayfish feed, cost of crayfish to stock the system, and labor. Model output suggests that the use of eyestalk ablation to produce soft shell crayfish would be profitable for a range of input variables that fall within those observed in laboratory studies.

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