Happenings in the USA and Dust Tracks 2013. Are they all wail tails and fish-e-stories?

If you love the occasional weekend break or the short mid-year mini vacation, the hospitality and restaurant industry is always looking for ways to make your dollar go further, In the world that we live in it’s the little things that count. Small pleasures and delights that used to cost you an arm and a leg seem to be more accessible and no thanks to the American Disabilities Association or the American Institute of Architects.

Well for one thing it would seem that the Lobster Industry remains in cool territory and prices continue to be rock bottom after several years. According to a recent report this summer filed by AccuWeather columnist, Samantha Kramer, supply has never been hotter and customers seem to be harder to come by. This year unusually warmer waters seem to have caused lobster farms to rush their products to the market as early as April as lobsters prematurely shed their hard shells and ended up on supermarket and restaurant shelves as much as six weeks ahead of schedule.

It was only in March of this year that restaurants across the nation starting taking lobsters off the menu because of their high prices and lack of customers as reported in the Nation's Restaurant News.

Bill Adler, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobsterman's Association grumbled that demand was drying up because of the current surge in prices, roughly

30% higher than the previous year.

Our take on this? Perhaps the East Coast needs big eaters, possibly West Coast shoppers, after all the California economy has been rock steady at no. Eight forever it seems. The World's Eighth largest Economy is apparently not eating enough and perhaps a few could lend a hand in the supply slump for red lobsters from Maine and all the way down the coast.

According to Peter McAleney, President of the Maine Import-Export Lobster Dealers Association, "Mother Nature played a real trick this year," restaurant owners seeking frozen tail lobsters will not stumble on any real discounts however it's the soft tail lobsters that are the problem for suppliers "You can only send them so far, and Maine people already had their feed of lobsters".

This is the second year in a row that suppliers of Main lobsters, the finest in the nation, have been hot.

In 2005, the average take for the fishery and seller was $4.63 per pound. In 2012, the price per pound dropped to $3.19 and this year's price is hovering at $4.00 per pound.

We can only hazard a guess that the industry may be overfishing, perhaps overfarming, Peter continues, "We have all these lobsters with nobody to eat them".