M.P. Hayes

The expansion of technology into the agricultural sector provides opportunities for research and extension to advance understanding of operations, increase efficiency and reduce costs for more sustainable farming. The Louisiana crawfish industry is the most recent commodity to benefit from an innovative technology designed to conduct surface water assessments for critical water quality parameters. The LSU AgCenter’s Water Quality Extension Lab has been traveling to farms around the southwest to demonstrate its Water Analysis Vessel (WAV) and promote best management practices for water quality in ponds.

During the late fall, farms begin transitioning rice fields into future crawfish ponds by pumping in water to flood the existing field. This inundates the soil and creates optimal conditions for crawfish to emerge from their burrows. With over 350,000 acres of crawfish ponds across the state, one of the most important factors in crawfish farming is the water quality, specifically the dissolved oxygen.

Many factors can play a role in the variation of water parameters, including weather events, water sources input (groundwater versus surface water) and natural vegetation coverage. High water temperatures coupled with decaying vegetation can create low oxygen events, which lead to stress or death of crawfish stocks. Once fields are flooded, the water quality must be monitored to ensure survival and adequate conditions for population growth.

To engage crawfish farmers in digital precision agriculture, the Water Quality Extension Lab team has done extensive design and validation for the WAV to accurately collect water quality parameters. The vessel is designed using two main components: an uncrewed surface vessel manufactured by BlueRobotics and a real-time water quality sensor capable of measuring seven water quality parameters. The YSI EXO2 Sensor is powered by a handheld interface also used to collect the GPS datapoints.

While conducting surface water analyses, the sensors log data for dissolved oxygen, nitrate, temperature, pH, conductivity and ammonium every five seconds. The handheld interface stores the data and associates a GPS datapoint for each sample. This enables the creation and comparison of spatial contour models for individual parameters in ponds using a software platform, HYPACK Environmental.

Before starting any research with crawfish ponds, the methods were tested for accuracy and repeatability by completing trials in a lake near LSU using stationary sensors to compare data from the WAV while the boat was in operation. This was used to determine the optimal speed and equilibration time for valid data to be established while conducting surface water assessments. For example, at low speeds, the dissolved oxygen may vary due to water disturbance by the vessel’s forward momentum, thus reporting higher values than the actual system.

In this case, the sensor may need to be stationary for 30 seconds to accurately measure the oxygen. Since the boat can be run on a manual or automated mission, this is a critical element when demonstrating to farmers the use of technology in their ponds.

In addition to method development, the WAV has been modified to navigate both severe underwater vegetation and shallow water, including depths of less than inches. Each of the sites the team visited had diverse pond setups, leading to unique datasets and deeper knowledge of adapting this technology to the needs of the industry.

Data collected from the demonstration visits have provided a foundation for preliminary pond analysis and a pathway to further research in the coming seasons. Trends of lower dissolved oxygen from the water input source across the pond system can be seen with spatial variation and where the depth profile changes.

In the shallower lanes and sides of the pond, the temperature can slightly increase, causing a reduction in dissolved oxygen compared to areas where traps are set. Additionally, the presence of plant matter and decaying vegetation can increase the nitrate content in areas of the pond, compared to more flooded locations.

Another feature of the WAV is a GoPro camera mounted to the front sensor, which allows for video to be taken during assessments. This video can be translated into educational content for grade-school students to see water and the crawfish industry in a creative way.

The lab is currently overlaying the videos with processed data to make living datasets for diverse ponds. This will allow for a visual comparison to see differences in dissolved oxygen, temperature and nutrient values to better estimate pond dynamics.

The next step for the assessments is to provide farmers with contour maps of their ponds to increase the dissolved oxygen dispersion and estimate the nutrient deposition for the following year’s rice crop.

As the 2026 crawfish season begins, farmers should look for opportunities to utilize this new digital precision agricultural resource to better understand their pond water dynamics and optimize water inputs for aeration.

With this new “WAV” of research and extension, the LSU AgCenter plans to update best management practices for the crawfish industry and continue to showcase the use of technology for water assessments.

M.P. Hayes is a dual-appointed assistant professor in the LSU AgCenter School of Plant, Environmental, and Soil Sciences and Louisiana Sea Grant.

This article appears in the fall 2025 issue of Louisiana Agriculture.

The WAV has a GoPro camera mounted to the front sensor, which allows for video to be taken during assessments. The video can be translated into educational content for grade-school students to see water and the crawfish industry in a creative way. Photo by Mark Shirley

The LSU AgCenter’s Water Quality Extension Lab has been traveling to farms around the southwest to demonstrate its Water Analysis Vessel (WAV) and promote best management practices for water quality in ponds. Photo by M.P. Hayes