Saving Seafood

CONNECTICUT: may allow smaller out-of-state lobsters to be sold here – which supporters say could lower prices

Jordan Nathaniel Fenster, Yahoo! News

May 6, 2026 — Most if not all of the lobsters sold at Captain Scott’s Lobster Dock are from out of state, according to owner Susan Tierney. But when her brother opened the Groton restaurant in 1996, they only sold locally fished lobsters.

“He was a lobsterman and a lobster wholesaler. He used to bring in all of our lobsters,” Tierney said of her now deceased brother, Tom Eshenfelder. “We don’t do that anymore.”

The year that Captain Scott’s opened was a big one for Connecticut’s lobster industry. More than 2.8 million pounds of lobster was landed in Connecticut that year, and by 1998, that number would grow to its peak of more than 3.7 million pounds, according to data maintained by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

But that was before the lobster die-off in Long Island Sound, caused by warming water, a shell rot illness and other factors. By 2000, only 1.3 million pounds of lobster was landed in Connecticut, and it just kept getting worse. In 2022, only 88,000 pounds of lobster was caught by Connecticut lobstermen.

“I don’t see a lot of local lobsters anymore,” Tierney said.

Tierney has to sell out-of-state lobsters, just like other restaurants and fish markets selling lobster in Connecticut, and they all pay a hidden premium on smaller-size lobsters.

State lawmakers will likely change the laws that govern the maximum and minimum size a lobster can be to be legally sold in Connecticut, in the hope that your lobster roll might be somewhat cheaper next year. The language, originally part of a seafood-specific bill, has been added to the state budget bill, which is widely expected to be signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont.