Saturday - July 07, 2012

Livin Large On The Cheap

Hey Mom, what’s for lunch?

Lobster was once synonymous with living large, but thanks to an abundance of the soft-shell version of the crustaceans in recent months, it’s not just a meal for special occasions anymore.

An excess supply in Maine of smaller soft-shell lobsters has driven prices to under $4 a pound, the Associated Press reported this week, making the luscious sea creature cheaper than the per pound price of deli meat in some cases.

Now that’s upgrading your usual boring baloney sandwich for lunch.

Soft-shell lobsters—lobsters that have shed their hard shells—are easier to crack open and have less meat, so they typically fetch lower prices than their hard-shell brethren.

Still, the sheer volume of the soft-shell variety that has shown up weeks before the usual Independence Day kick-off of lobster season in Maine has tipped the scales of supply and demand further in favor of crustacean-craving consumers.

Forget hot dogs, glut means cheap lobster prices

A glut has driven down lobster prices in Maine — bringing cheer to lobster-loving consumers at the start of the state’s tourist season but gloom among lobstermen.

Retailers have been selling small soft-shell lobsters in the Portland area for an unusually low $3.79 to $4.99 a pound. At those prices, lobsters have been selling for less than the per-pound price of bologna at many supermarket deli counters.

Zain Nemazie, of Austin, Texas, was expecting low lobster prices — but not this low — while on vacation in Maine with his family.

“This is as good as it gets,” Nemazie said late last week after paying $4.59 a pound for large 1 1/2-pound lobsters at a seafood shop on Portland’s waterfront. “We’re from Texas, where we’d be paying at least $12 a pound.”

At Docks Seafood in South Portland, owner Bob Coppersmith said customers were eating up the low prices, including a deal where he was selling five small live lobsters for $25. He later dropped it to five for $24.

“One gentleman came in and said, ‘So I get five lobsters for $25. What’s the catch?’” Coppersmith said. “I said there’s no catch. He said, ‘You’re going to put five lobsters in a bag and not weigh them and give me them to me for 25 bucks?’ He just couldn’t believe it.”

The Fourth of July represents the unofficial start to Maine’s tourist season, when out-of-state visitors begin arriving in earnest.

Yeah, but ...

This year, though, soft-shell lobsters began showing up in abundance in fishermen’s traps weeks earlier than normal.

Most of those lobsters usually go to Canadian processors. But the processors haven’t been able to handle the Maine catch because Canadian lobstermen had such strong catches during their spring season, resulting in a backlog, said Neal Workman, head of The Fisheries Exchange, a Biddeford company that tracks prices, catches and other market information for the lobster industry.

Supply right now far exceeds demand, resulting in a “perfect storm” for the industry, he said.

Yeah, but ...
Look folks, take it from a Yankee. Soft shelled lobsters are the ones that have just molted. Right now those little bugs are sending all their nutrients into hardening up that new shell. Which means they’re weak. It means their flesh is watery and tasteless. Sure, you can get softies cheap: it’s not worth it; you’re wasting your money. In 2 weeks they’ll be nice and hard again, and 2 weeks after that their meat will be plumped up and tasty. So this year, instead of avoiding lobsters in late August, you want to avoid them in early July.

I’m not going to blame Global Warming for this year’s early molt. Puh-leez. But I’m reading between the lines and this seems like an act of desperation to me. Teeny lobsters are almost always caught close to shore; this glut may be the shallow water hunters pushing back against the deep water crews.

Not 100% sure of this, but I seem to remember that once upon a time when the lobstermen saw the molt coming, they stopping fishing and used the few weeks off to repair their boats for the season. Because there was no market for soft shelled lobsters. Also, late Spring was when mostly only chickens were available; “chickens” being tiny lobsters of 1 lb or less. The ones that are pretty much too small to eat. Lobsters apparently migrate in and out of the deeper waters, or at least the larger ones do.

Also once upon a time, lobstering was a shallow water endeavor. The medium lobsters - 1 1/2 - 3 pounds, which are the size you WANT to eat - came up into the shallow on-shore waters in the summer and could be caught within sight of land. Now it seems to be a year-round industry, and the fishermen go far out to sea to catch the big ones in deep water. They even have their own darn TV show these days, and you can see the guys hauling 15 pounders up out of the deep. What’s the point of that? You need a gun and a chainsaw to break through that kind of armor; the shell on a 15 pounder is probably an inch thick! Heck, even the shell on a 3 pounder can be daunting in your own kitchen.

So the whole thing sounds like over fishing to me. Yes, many folks in Maine are poorer than church mice. And nobody wants to see the fishing fleets go under. But over-grazing a sub-market quality crop to the barest break even point seems pretty short sighted to me. Let ‘em go, let ‘em grow, then catch them in a month when they’ll be worth twice as much. And taste more than twice as good.

From the summer of 2008, when unemployment was “dangerously high” at 5.8% for a labor force half a million folks larger, and $4 gas was Bush’s fault 24-7:

PORTLAND, Maine — It’s peak season for lobster and tourism in Maine, yet consumption of this crustacean has fallen to the point where it costs no more than sliced turkey in parts of New England.

A solid harvest and diminished demand from diners adjusting to the weak economy have pushed the retail price of lobster in Maine beneath $6 a pound, tightening the financial squeeze on fisherman struggling with soaring fuel prices.

While fewer locals and tourists overall are shelling out for lobster dinners, some say the affordability — at a time when most food prices are rising — has encouraged them to eat more of the seafood delicacy than usual.

Katina Wetter, who spent more than $100 on gas to drive from Indiana to Portland, Maine, with her family, is counting her pennies while on vacation — but said she definitely won’t skimp on the state’s signature seafood. “I’d be buying lobsters anyway, but not as many if the prices weren’t this low,” Wetter said.

Lobster lovers outside of New England won’t notice any change in price, analysts said, since Maine’s summertime catch is mostly soft-shelled and too fragile to ship long distances.

Maine is the nation’s lobster breadbasket with fishermen last year hauling in 63 million pounds, about 80% of the U.S. catch, worth $280 million.

Lobster prices are volatile throughout the year, with the highest prices in winter and spring. They typically decline in summer, when fishermen begin catching lobsters in abundance in the cold waters off Maine’s rocky coast.

It seems strange that a century ago, lobsters were so plentiful that farmers used them for fertilizer, because nobody wanted to eat them. They were not the delicacy they are today and were routinely fed to prisoners. And not as their last meal.

Yes, and that “weak economy” has “recovered” so much under King Obama that 4 years later those lobsters are selling for a FULL THIRD less when our money also seems to be worth a full third less. I wonder if the price of arugula has also bottomed out?

Posted by Drew458     on 07/07/2012 at 09:35 AM   
Filed Under: • Fine-Dining •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner