May 5, 2020 — As Dave Cataldo Sr. loaded lobster traps into his boat with his son Monday at the Marshfield Town Pier, there was one person missing from the dock who in past years always made sure to stop by and say hello at the beginning of the season.
“This is the first year our dealer has not come down,” Cataldo said.
The wholesale lobster buyer normally comes down to the docks around the opening of the season to shake hands with him and his son, Dave Cataldo Jr., to check in and to ask how their winters were. The Cataldos’ buyer isn’t the only one missing.
“There’s nobody down here,” the senior Cataldo said.
Lobsters are normally a sought-after commodity and in past years, wholesalers have swamped the harbor with refrigerated trucks, ready and offering to buy the catch being unloaded at the harbor, he said.
With the economy on pause because of the coronavirus crisis, the future of lobstering, the demand and more importantly, the price per pound, is an unknown.
The younger Cataldo said restaurants, one of the biggest purchasers of lobsters, are mostly shut down and even when they are allowed to reopen, it will be with fewer customers spaced further apart.