Saving Seafood

Spike in Northeast Lobster Price Stings LA Distributor

June 23, 2015 — The days of cheap lobster are over. From Maine to Monterey Park, consumers are shelling out more for the delicacy.

Wholesale prices are up about 20% compared with last year’s, said Chol Pak, president of Los Angeles-based Pacific Fresh Fish Co., which has sold seafood to restaurants in the L.A. area for 33 years.

His company sells Maine American Lobster for $8.95 per pound. Sales are down, he said, because that’s more than most of his buyers want to pay.

William Cheng, manager at NBC Seafood Restaurant in Monterey Park, said that at $16.99 a pound, the restaurant is charging customers $1 more a pound than last year.

“We don’t want to raise the price a lot because then the customers would have to pay more and there is just too much competition,” he said.

One reason for the price increase: An unusually cold winter in the Northeast delayed the summer harvest in Maine. Fishermen must wait until lobsters shed their shells and reach legal harvesting size.

Read the full story at Los Angeles Times

 

CALIFORNIA: Disappearing Porpoise: Down to 97 and Dropping Fast

June 19, 2015 — CALIFORNIA — The world’s most endangered porpoise is disappearing much faster than previously believed, according to a new report from the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita.

Found only in the northern Gulf of California, the remaining 97 vaquitas are threatened by gill-net fishing. Despite an emergency two-year ban enacted by the Mexican government in April, fishermen still use the nets.

Recent data from acoustic monitoring show that the species is declining by an average of 30 percent a year — much higher than the previous estimate of 18.5 percent, which scientists said was the steepest decline of cetaceans on record.

Read the full story at the New York Times