I shot my first video working on this story in January, 2009. What you can’t tell is that I could barely feel my fingers while shooting the video. Imagine Boston in the winter. Cold, right? Now drop the temp about 20 more degrees when you’re out on the water. Yep. And then there’s the matter of how I get easily seasick. So of course, the waves were up the morning we went out and I’m interviewing the lobsterman out on the water, and at one point, I stop him midsentence and say, “Hold that thought. I have to hurl off the side of your boat.” Needless to say, I provided him with quite a bit of entertainment and a story for his friends about the city reporter.
MARSHFIELD, Mass. — Gregg Dexter hauls a 50-pound wire lobster trap out of the frigid, muddy waters of Cape Cod Bay, one of 800 traps he has to fetch as he stores his gear for the winter.He’s ending his season three weeks early because the catch is declining, bringing a dismal season to a close. Because of a gloomy economy, the price of lobsters sank from October through Christmas, the peak fishing period.
In the 15 years Dexter, 40, has been in the business, things have never been worse. The “boat price” that lobstermen get fell to $2.25 a pound this season, the lowest they’ve been in 20 years — at the same time that the costs of fuel, bait and insurance are going up.
For more: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2009-01-12-lobsters_N.htm
