March 16, 2021 — Rich Isaksen has had no trouble catching fish during a pandemic.
Selling his catch, however, has been a disaster.
Isaksen is the president of the Belford Seafood Cooperative Association in Monmouth County, a collection of about 20 independent fishing boats. When governments around the region ordered restaurants to close in efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19, demand for fish caught by people like Isaksen evaporated. Prices at the docks plunged.
In June, the fisherman was offered just three cents per pound for red hake, a fish that normally draws 50 or 60 cents per pound. It wasn’t an isolated case.
“Last week, I think they got $1.20 (per pound) for summer flounder,” Isaksen said. “Normally, that’s like three or four dollars.”
Wholesalers, to whom Isaksen’s co-op usually sells, tried to compensate for disappearing restaurant demand by peddling more to supermarkets and grocery stores. That helped some, Isaksen said, but he still estimates his 2020 income from selling to wholesalers was slashed in half.
“The thing about the fishing industry, there’s not a lot of people buying whole fish and cleaning them,” Isaksen said. “A lot of people are going to restaurants.”