February 11, 2021 โ โIt started with rumors, said Pete Halmay, seasoned urchin diver and president of San Diego Fishermenโs Working Group. At seventy-something, heโs still out getting salty almost every day. Two or three months before spiny lobster season was set to open in early October, Halmay said, talk on the docks was that Asia wasnโt buying this year, demand was way down due to covid-19, and the price San Diego fishermen would get for spiny lobster would be 30-50 percent of the norm. In a typical year, 95 percent of spiny lobster caught in San Diego goes to overseas markets, primarily Asia.
Coveted for its resemblance to a dragon, California spiny lobster is a lucky dish for Lunar New Year and is served at weddings and large get-togethers. Covid-19 crashed those parties in late 2019 and throughout 2020. Spiny lobster prices crashed too. President Trumpโs trade war with China and the retaliatory tariffs didnโt help. The rumored price prior to the season opening was $8 per pound, down from the 2019 average of about $20 and 2015โs high near $30. California Department of Fish and Wildlife data showed that spiny lobster was the most profitable local catch at $3.8 million in 2017. In 2018, it brought in $3 million, beating out bigeye tuna. When the pandemic started in China in late 2019, it coincided with the height of legal spiny lobster season in California. Sales in 2019 dropped to $1.8 million. Among San Diegoโs top-grossing seafoods, spiny lobster saw the biggest decline. Said Halmay, โThey [local fishermen] got together and decided, โWe canโt make a living off that. Letโs do something about it.โโ
Seafood typically changes hands four or five times before reaching the consumer. In San Diego, fishermen sell off the dock to whomever is buying at the highest price, and they have no control over the โchain of custodyโ after that. โWe know one up and one down, where it comes from and who buys it. We donโt really know for sure where it goes after that.โ