Got a craving for stone crabs? Get ready to shell out more money
MIAMI - Stone crab season is off and running to quite an expensive start and this year some crabbers may have been affected by Hurricane Ian.
Kelly Kirk is a director for the Florida Stone Crabbers Association, her dad is a crabber and the family runs Kirk Fish company.
So, she knows a thing or two about what drives the price of the beloved seafood delicacy. In our case this year -- up.
"Supply and demand of day-to-day goods, with bait and fuel cost have increased prior to the season even starting," said Kirk
And what did not help things this season is Hurricane Ian.
"Fishermen are having a hard time because so many fish houses have been damaged or destroyed," said Kirk.
While some crabbers may have been able to move their boats, they couldn't move their homes and that's going to have an impact on who's out looking for the claws.
"There's going to be, that whole area won't produce as much even if they get the boats they took such a tremendous amount of weather, I don't know how the crabs are going to react," said Howie Grimm,
Over at Grimm's Stone Crab in Everglades City, he's still seeing robust demand from restaurants, many from Broward and Miami-Dade.
"Like down here, we ended with 75 mph winds, so it didn't affect the bottom that much," said Grimm.
Grimm thinks production in areas not heavily hit by Hurricane Ian should be able to keep up with demand. As to whether prices will come down, he says it's still too early.
"Just hang in there keep supporting us. We're going to keep providing the fresh local seafood that you guys love," said Kirk.
