April 7, 2020 — With doors closed to area seafood restaurants due to the coronavirus, there’s not much call for commercial fishermen to haul in those fish.
“We had just got a 14,000-pound load of red snapper in, anticipating a whole bunch of busy restaurants,” said Eddie Morgan of Harbor Docks Seafood Market. “But that didn’t happen at all.
“We’re not hardly selling anything to restaurants … we’re still selling a little bit to the fish markets,” he said such as Shrimpers and Goatfeathers in South Walton. “But the restaurants are not like they should be.”
Morgan said they opened their seafood market on Mountain Drive last week and sold whatever they had at wholesale prices to the general public.
But with restaurants closed for in-door dining, and only a few still doing carry out, the demand for fish is low.
“There are a few (commercial) boats fishing, but most of the boats that we work with … we’ve told them to stay at the dock,” Morgan said. “We don’t need much now.”