CHATHAM, Mass. — August 21, 2014 — Here we are in the third week in August, and striped bass is still on restaurant menus and being sold in fish markets.
That hasn't happened in six years.
In fact, with 33 percent of the total striped bass quota — nearly 368,000 pounds — still left to be caught, experts say restaurants can keep this supremely local fish on their menus right through the summer, maybe into fall.
"The price (paid to fishermen) has stayed high. And I think (the quota) will last into September, if not later," said Alex Hay, chief operating officer for Mac's Seafood, which has four fish markets and three restaurants on the Outer Cape.
Fishermen are getting between $4 and $5 per pound as compared with $3 a pound last year.
The downside is that wholesale prices remain high and the price to retail customers is at $17 to $26 a pound.
"The locals aren't used to paying those kinds of prices," said Andy Baler, owner of Nantucket Fish Co., a wholesale and retail seafood business located in Dennis and Chatham. He estimated sales of striped bass are down by about 50 percent.
Prices are high, Hay said, but he pitches striped bass as a top-shelf product along with swordfish and halibut. And, he said, customers appreciate a local product now that the region's fishermen aren't catching much cod or haddock.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times