Demand and Price Are Falling for Lobster

NYT's Katie Zezma reports:

Peter Eaton, a lobsterman from Kennebunkport, Me....is getting about $3.75 per lobster off the boat, a quarter less than three months ago and about a dollar less than last summer...

While price and demand have hit their lowest point in years, lobster fishermen are hauling in larger catches than ever. Restaurants in New England have been running lobster specials all summer, trying to pass on the lower prices and move lobsters from the tank to the table.

[At] Legal Sea Foods, a restaurant chain based in Boston...[]ts restaurants have been running lobster specials this summer, and a lobster is about $4 cheaper this summer than last...

Soft-shell lobsters, which are harvested in summer and typically served in restaurants, are the least expensive this year, while hard-shell lobsters, which are usually no smaller than a pound and a half, are slightly more expensive.

While diners like lower lobster prices, lobster fishermen do not. The fishermen have spent much of this year modifying how they set and haul in their traps. Some are allowing traps to sit in the water a day or two longer, which helps save gas and bait prices. Lobster fishermen are absorbing fuel costs twice — for their own boats and for those of the bait fishermen, who have raised prices...

“You have to let your traps set longer,” Mr. Eaton said. “If it’s a windy, blowy day you don’t do a half-day’s work anymore.

“In the end it pays off because you’re not wasting fuel. It’s not costing you two days’ fuel to haul one day’s work.”...

At James Hook and Company, a retailer in Boston, lobster was selling at $1 or $2 less a pound than usual: a soft-shell lobster was $6.99 a pound, while a one-pound hard-shell lobster was $8.99