July 1, 2013 — While prices continue to fluctuate, as of Friday, lobster on SouthCoast was selling in many places for $4.99 to $5.99 per pound. Both vendors and lobstermen expect the price to drop even more as the summer progresses.
That's sweet news for lobster fans.
"There is really nothing else like homemade mayonnaise and lobster," Denise Morency Gannon said as she purchased some lobster meat from Captain Frank's Seafood in New Bedford.
Eunice Parsons, an employee there, said people buy lobster because "they like a special treat."
Much like last summer, the reason for lower prices is a glut of lobsters in Canada and Maine.
Skip Manchester, the owner of Liberty Lobster in New Bedford, which sells about 1 million pounds of lobster annually (half of that in the summer), was a lobsterman for 22 years. He said the Canadian glut is so large that it balances out this year's SouthCoast catch, which has not been promising so far. Manchester attributes this to a cold, stormy winter, which made fishing more difficult and caused the crustaceans to go into a state of hibernation, making them harder to trap.
"Lobster prices will be low this year regardless of these factors, due to the strong catches in Canada and Maine so far this spring," Manchester said.
Kenny Arruda, head of lobster sales for Oceans Fleet Fisheries in New Bedford, agreed.
"The Canadians are running the show in the market," Arruda said.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times