The price of lobsters in the state is dropping this summer, with some retailers selling them for as little as $4.99 per pound.
Warm weather has helped produce a glut of lobsters from Maine this year, where wholesale prices have reportedly dropped to as little as $1.25 per pound.
That’s prompted some fishermen there to keep their boats tied to the dock, the Wall Street Journal reports. For many lobstermen, when the price of their catch falls that low it’s not worth fishing for them.
But the glut also has translated into lower retail prices throughout New England and in Connecticut.
Some lobstermen say that’s not necessarily a good thing for consumers. The Maine lobsters that make up the glut resulted from the unusually warm winter that saw lobsters in Maine shedding and growing new shells sooner than normal. Those softer-shelled lobsters could have less meat than harder shelled lobsters from say, Canada, where the water temperatures are colder.
At Captain Scott’s Lobster Dock in New London, retail prices for lobsters there range today from $8-$10 per pound, depending on the size of the lobster, which are hard-shelled and from Canada.
At Stop & Shop in Clinton and in East Hampton, lobsters are selling for $6.99 per pound, and are a mix of hard and softer shell lobsters. At Tri Town Foods in Portland, lobster prices all week have been $4.99 per pound, down nearly $1 from a week or so ago. Store staff there said their lobsters are soft shelled from Maine.
