The last time I bought a pound of blue jumbo lump crab meat was last year
for about $21. At the seafood market in town today it's $29.

At the Whole Foods market in Devon today it was selling for $35!!!

I asked the employee behind the counter if it was a typo and she laughed
and said no.

On the web it's anywhere from $33 - $55!

That's highway robbery!

This CAN'T be the Katrinna Effect! It's almost all from Maryland!??
What's the price in your area?

I understand it's hard to get such large lumps of crab, but no harder
than last year or the year before...

The BUMS!!!

Andy

On 2006-09-27, Andy <q> wrote:

> This CAN'T be the Katrinna Effect! It's almost all from Maryland!??
> What's the price in your area?

It may have been an off season. Fewer crabs. Or, it's just the usual
reason seafood has gone off scale ....getting close to extinction.

nb

On 27 Sep 2006, you wrote in rec.food.cooking:

> Or, it's just the usual
> reason seafood has gone off scale ....getting close to extinction.
>
> nb


nb,

LOL! You just reminded me of the movie "The Freshman" starring Matt
Broderick and Marlon Brando with a GREAT supporting cast! The 'Gourmet
Club'!

The last blue crabs in the world, tonight served for the very last time,
as crab cakes with vegetable medley for only $500,000 a plate.

Or something like that.

Andy

"Andy" <q> wrote in message > The last time I bought a pound of blue jumbo
lump crab meat was last year
> for about $21. At the seafood market in town today it's $29.
> <snipped>

> This CAN'T be the Katrinna Effect! It's almost all from Maryland!??
> What's the price in your area?
>
> I understand it's hard to get such large lumps of crab, but no harder
> than last year or the year before...
>
> The BUMS!!!
>
> Andy

Lump crab meat has been running about $18 here in Maryland. Backfin is
around $14. It has been a lousy crab year, after quite a few lousy years.
Thank over-harvesting, flooding earlier this year which inundated the
Chesapeake Bay, and pollution.

Dora

limey wrote:

>
> Lump crab meat has been running about $18 here in Maryland. Backfin is
> around $14. It has been a lousy crab year, after quite a few lousy
> years. Thank over-harvesting, flooding earlier this year which inundated
> the Chesapeake Bay, and pollution.

Well, that settles the question of whether or not we'll have crab cakes
at Thanksgiving this year. I probably can't afford it.

Ironically, I remember the marketing campaign that was run in the
Maryland area back in the very early 80's promoting crab and seafood.
Demand had been way down, and they were trying to boost the local
economy and keep fishermen employed.



Dawn

limey said...

>
> "Andy" <q> wrote in message > The last time I bought a pound of blue
> jumbo lump crab meat was last year
>> for about $21. At the seafood market in town today it's $29.
>> <snipped>
>
>> This CAN'T be the Katrinna Effect! It's almost all from Maryland!??
>> What's the price in your area?
>>
>> I understand it's hard to get such large lumps of crab, but no harder
>> than last year or the year before...
>>
>> The BUMS!!!
>>
>> Andy
>
> Lump crab meat has been running about $18 here in Maryland. Backfin
> is around $14. It has been a lousy crab year, after quite a few lousy
> years. Thank over-harvesting, flooding earlier this year which
> inundated the Chesapeake Bay, and pollution.
>
> Dora


Dora,

Thanks for clearing up the issue. I hope that in a couple years the
industry will bounce back with abundance!

All the best,

Andy

On Wed, 27 Sep 2006 21:06:41 GMT, Dawn wrote:

> Ironically, I remember the marketing campaign that was run in the
> Maryland area back in the very early 80's promoting crab and seafood.
> Demand had been way down, and they were trying to boost the local
> economy and keep fishermen employed.

Is that when the "Maryland is for Crabs" thing started? I was here in the
early 80's but left for basic training in March of '84. I seem to remember
t-shirts, bumper stickers, coffee mugs and other stuff.

--

-Jeff B.
zoomie at fastmail fm

On 2006-09-27, Andy <q> wrote:

> The last blue crabs in the world, tonight served for the very last time,
> as crab cakes with vegetable medley for only $500,000 a plate.

....and you're laughing about what? :|

nb

"Dawn" wrote
>
> Ironically, I remember the marketing campaign that was run in the Maryland
> area back in the very early 80's promoting crab and seafood. Demand had
> been way down, and they were trying to boost the local economy and keep
> fishermen employed.
>
> Dawn

In the early 80's, crops were plentiful. The Bay had huge supplies of
striped bass (locally known as rockfish), crab hauls were great and oysters
equally so. Rockfish were totally over-fished by avid fishermen (both for
a living and for pleasure) to the point where a moratorium was declared for
quite a few years to allow the fish to come back. Crabs are so popular
that demand is often greater than the supply, resulting in high prices.
Oysters have been decimated by a couple of diseases and there is a push to
introduce a Japanese strain, but nobody knows what that would do to the
native oyster. The people really hurting in all this are the watermen, who
are just trying to make a living.

Dora

Andy wrote:
> The last time I bought a pound of blue jumbo lump crab meat was last year
> for about $21. At the seafood market in town today it's $29.
>
> At the Whole Foods market in Devon today it was selling for $35!!!
>
> I asked the employee behind the counter if it was a typo and she laughed
> and said no.
>
> On the web it's anywhere from $33 - $55!
>
> That's highway robbery!
>
> This CAN'T be the Katrinna Effect! It's almost all from Maryland!??
> What's the price in your area?

Not Katrina but close. There was a lot of flooding this year on the main
rivers that empty into Chesapeake Bay. That tends to mess up the crabs.


>
> I understand it's hard to get such large lumps of crab, but no harder
> than last year or the year before...
>
> The BUMS!!!
>
> Andy
>

limey wrote:

> back. Crabs are so popular that demand is often greater than the
> supply, resulting in high prices.


And still, I gotta wonder, if they hadn't decided to be the supplier for
the western hemisphere, would there still be fish and crab in the
Chesapeake? Demand is up because they pushed it in the 80's. Now, oops,
they're nearly out.

I wonder how much crab my local Whole Foods throws out because folks
around here just weren't raised with 'fish', and don't buy it.


Dawn

On Wed, 27 Sep 2006 14:56:31 -0500, Andy <q> wrote:

>The last time I bought a pound of blue jumbo lump crab meat was last year
>for about $21. At the seafood market in town today it's $29.

Crab lump meat? It's been years since I've purchased that - I
wouldn't consider it at even $20 lb. Aaaah for the good old days.

(ugh) I'm becoming my grandparents! LOL Well, crab is over fished
anyway so I'm doing my part.

"Dawn" wrote:
>
> And still, I gotta wonder, if they hadn't decided to be the supplier for
> the western hemisphere, would there still be fish and crab in the
> Chesapeake? Demand is up because they pushed it in the 80's. Now, oops,
> they're nearly out.
>
> I wonder how much crab my local Whole Foods throws out because folks
> around here just weren't raised with 'fish', and don't buy it.
>
> Dawn

We started boating in 1969 and at that time striped bass (rockfish) were a
bumper crop. I still remember being horrified when one of my co-workers
bragged that he had caught 110 rockfish that weekend! Who, in the world,
could justify that many? Rockfish went down steadily each year because of
the increasing numbers of recreational fishermen, thus the moratorium.

With crabs, the crab houses would purchase blue crabs from Louisiana in the
off season. What most people don't know, though, is that the famous
Phillips people here purchase their crabmeat from South East Asia.

Sorry for the soapbox, but I am saddened to see the state of the Bay today.

Dora

limey said...

> What most people don't know, though, is that the famous
> Phillips people here purchase their crabmeat from South East Asia.


Dora,

Ya just had to mention that!?!? Last week I bought four boxes of their
crab cakes, after seeing Phillips showcased on some Food-TV show recently.


Andy

"Andy" <q> wrote in message
> limey said...
>
>> What most people don't know, though, is that the famous
>> Phillips people here purchase their crabmeat from South East Asia.
>
>
> Dora,
>
> Ya just had to mention that!?!? Last week I bought four boxes of their
> crab cakes, after seeing Phillips showcased on some Food-TV show recently.
>

> Andy

They're not bad, Andy - just tell yourself they're at least sent from
Maryland!

limey said...

>
> "Andy" <q> wrote in message
>> limey said...
>>
>>> What most people don't know, though, is that the famous
>>> Phillips people here purchase their crabmeat from South East Asia.
>>
>>
>> Dora,
>>
>> Ya just had to mention that!?!? Last week I bought four boxes of
>> their crab cakes, after seeing Phillips showcased on some Food-TV
>> show recently.
>>
>
>> Andy
>
> They're not bad, Andy - just tell yourself they're at least sent from
> Maryland!


Dora,

True. It could be worse--I could be living in Thailand and eating
Phillips' imported 'Gourmet Maryland' crab cakes.

Andy