After a day of fishing nearly three hundred and 50 pounds of lobster are being sorted on the Privateer, a lobster boat just in to Boston Harbor. Privateer’s captain Paul Pender said that after years of conservation, they are having a really good catch — then it’s kind of negated by the fact that the price went into the toilet.
It is told that the lobster catch in Massachusetts this year is expected to total 12 million pounds. But business is not good as most of the lobstermen are financially stressed because they’re only getting around $3 per pound for lobsters, compared to $4.50 per pound a year ago and $5 per pound in 2007.
The Privateer and the other lobster boats lined up at Medeiros Dock aren’t cheap to operate. They require significant maintenance, they need fuel and oil. There’s insurance to pay, and the banks. A lobsterman needs traps and he needs bait — a lot of it. It is a different story on the wholesale and retail end of the lobster business. From their store on the Boston waterfront, James Hook & Co. sells to the hungry public and to fellow lobster dealers.
But Bill Adler of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association is worried about lobstermen and concerned about the future. Adler also said that there is about 900 active, commercial, inshore lobstermen in Massachusetts. Adler worries that number will be even lower next year if prices stay where they are through the rest of the summer and into the fall and winter.
