March 19, 2014 — The numbers were sometimes hard to believe on Tuesday during the 10th annual buyers' visit and tour of the New Bedford scallop industry.
As the group of buyers from all over the world filled Richie Canastra's online auction room, the price of U-10 scallops from the fishing vessel Inspiration pushed past $17 per pound.
That made boat owner Knute Aarsheim very, very happy as he and his son Keith, the boat's captain, watched the beady but beautiful numbers on the big flat-screen auction display.
Canastra remarked, however, that the day before, U-10 scallop prices reached $19.30 per pound at the boat. (The U-10 "channel" scallops are considered top of the line, excellent texture with no more than 10 to the pound. They are from the rock-filled "channel" fishing grounds, where Canastra said the scallops get a workout as though they're at a gym. And of course the scallops we eat are mussels.)
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times