April 8, 2020 — A small group of lobster harvesters in the US state of Massachusetts are defying the horrible market conditions created by the coronavirus pandemic by selling direct to consumers at the dock, and using Facebook to promote their efforts.
Two vessels with captains from the town of Mattapoisett — the Miss Molly and the Mary Anne — kicked off the effort on Sunday with a test run by offering their fresh catch, first-come/first-serve, at Union Wharf, in the town of Fairhaven, for $6.00 per pound. All 600 lbs caught by the two vessels were sold out in 90 minutes.
The captains bought a commercial-grade scale and accepted cash and Venmo payments.
The price might’ve been a little below what lobsters were selling for before COVID-19 hit the US, but it was much higher than the $4.35/lb to $4.50/lb paid recently by processors, many of whom have now stopped buying altogether, Troy Durr, a Mattapoisett-based real estate agent and one of the direct-to-consumer event’s organizers, told Undercurrent News.
He said he and his uncle, Doug Durr, a crew member on the Miss Molly, were pushed into action after the Miss Molly’s captain, Dave Magee, was told earlier by a commercial buyer that it could only take 250 of the 500 pounds of lobster it brought in more than a week earlier. (Mike Asci is the captain of the Mary Anne.)