The Year We Learned to Cook Seafood At Home, And Sent Prices Soaring

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/28/ [login to see] /the-year-we-learned-to-cook-seafood-at-home-and-sent-prices-soaring
If you're looking for a lobster roll this spring, get ready to dig deep. The pandemic's lasting effects on seafood markets — combined with the sometimes unpredictable ebb and flow of lobster harvests — is driving the price of the New England classic to remarkable highs.

In Maine this month, roadside lobster rolls were going for as much as $34 each.

"This year's just been a crazy year," said Gary Blackman Sr., who with his wife has been running Karen's Hideaway, a low-key but popular lobster shack in coastal Boothbay, for two decades.

As the 2021 tourist season gets underway, he's found himself charging his highest prices ever for a lobster roll: $28 last week. That reflects the high prices resellers like Blackman are paying lobstermen at the dock — when there's product coming in at all.