WEST YARMOUTH, Mass., — March 29, 2013 — The Cape Cod Times weekly phone survey of fish markets across the Cape shows the median per pound retail price for 2-pound lobster climbing over the past two weeks to where it is $4 higher than the same time last year. One fish market was charging $20 a pound.
The bins in the display case at Cape Codder Seafoods were overflowing with glistening fresh fish, scallops and shellfish, harvest from the deep waters off Georges Bank all the way down to the shallow bays of Falmouth.
That abundance was not true of the lobster pools, which were populated by just a few specimens, huddled in the corners.
"I'm only carrying the bare minimum," manager Shawn Cahoon said. The reason: Lobster wholesale prices are too high, higher than they've been in years.
Cahoon held up a price sheet from his wholesaler that showed double-digit figures for most sizes. He sells them for $13.99 per pound, just a couple of dollars above the wholesale price, he said.
"Nobody wants to touch them at the high price," Cahoon said. "I'm hoping the price comes down."
After news stories detailing a record harvest in both Maine and Canada last year, you can pardon lobster customers for being skeptical about the going price for the king of crustaceans.
The vagaries of lobster pricing are no longer as simple as a fisherman going out in a boat, catching lobsters and selling them to fish markets. American lobster is now an international commodity and a highly regulated species. The price people pay can be affected more by what's happening in Nova Scotia, Beijing or London than what fishermen in Vinalhaven, Maine, or Sandwich are experiencing.
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