California lobster news

Shelling out for California lobster

  
  by Karen Pelland
   If you’ve ever found yourself wondering why it’s getting harder and harder to afford local California fresh  lobster, look no further than the exploding middle class in China.
    Its demand for the red spiny creature over the past decade or so has driven market value of spiny lobster through the roof, leaving locals hard pressed to even find it in restaurants or farmers’ markets. those that do are paying an arm and a leg for it.

Some of the spiny California lobster ready
to be purchased and shipped to China.

   At the close of California’s 2013-2014 lobster fishing season this past week, the boat price for lobster (the fresh lobster price paid directly to fisherman) was at its highest to date — $24 per pound.
 
   As a result, it’s estimated the state’s 200 commercially licensed lobstermen are unloading 99 percent of their catch to buyers who then truck it to Los Angeles, where it is then packaged up and shipped to China.

Santa Barbara fisherman Sam Shrout shows off his freshly caught live lobster.

    Certainly the fisherman, such as Santa Barbara’s Sam Shrout, aren’t complaining. “It’s been a good season due to the price,” says Shrout. “We’ve been in a cold water cycle over the past few years, so our catch is definitely low, and the way I see it it’s money in the bank. All the lobsters I didn’t catch are going to be there next year, and they’re just going to be bigger.”



    Shrout sets up a one-man market at the Santa Barbara harbor every Saturday morning year round to sell his crab, rock fish, mollusks, etc., but during lobster season, he will take special orders ahead of time and set aside some of the valuable crustaceans for the public.
 
That is by far the cheapest way to get local lobster, or else one is left to pay retail at the Santa Barbara Fish Market, which currently prices them for $37.95 per pound. Continue