One by one, the boats returned to the wharf in Eastern Passage, N.S., Thursday afternoon to unload the day’s catch. The Double Trouble has been out since early morning. Their catch is a good one, about 1,400 pounds. Patrick DeWolfe helps lift the stuffed crates ashore. “Catches are, they’re doing well, the quality of the lobster, we’re finding at this shop, really well.” DeWolfe then grades each lobster. He checks the shells by squeezing the body. They’re then grouped by weight and quality. The soft shelled lobsters are less desirable. “The harder, the lobster, the better the quality,” he says. Rachel Romkey works at a shop in Easter Passage which sells lobster directly to the customer. She is seeing unusually large lobsters coming in during the first two weeks of the season. “There’s a lot of nice large size lobster this year. I’ve been seeing six pounds, seven pounds and eight pounds so far already early in the season. Normally I don’t see the big guys until later in the season,” she says. The shop deals with a lot of orders, some want pre-cooked lobsters which are steamed right on the wharf. There are also a lot of requests from people outside the Halifax Regional Municipality. “I just had a customer called me from Cape Breton, he’s driving up to get lobster next week. I have a guy from Toronto setting up his own shipping arrangements for UPS to come pick up lobsters to send out there,” says Romkey. The catch unloaded Thursday could be the last lobsters for the next couple of days. With bitter cold and high winds rolling into the area, some captains plan to keep their boats tied up until the weather clears. As for prices, right now it’s usually between $11 and $12 a pound. That’s based on the estimated shore price which isn’t set yet, so that price could still change. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
