Local business seeking Dungeness crab from other sources

“I think everybody’s put in preorders asking them to ship it down to us as soon as they get it in,” said Gaspar Catanzaro, sales associate for Monterey Fish Company.

Now that the commercial crab season is shut down until further notice, the Monterey Fish Company is getting it’s Dungeness crab from Washington.

“That will help us provide the consumer with some fresh crab,” said Catanzaro.

Typically locally sourced crab allows them to keep prices cheaper.

Dungeness crab from out of state may come with a heftier price tag.

“Probably a buck more, two bucks more,” said Catanzaro. “We havent really seen. We don’t really know right now until they start delivering it but we’re thinking that it might be that much more.”

Right now they are using the Alaskhan King and lump crab from back east and overseas to help fill the gap.

“It’s gonna cost us a lot more,” said Catanzaro. “Already the price in crab meat, the lump crab has gone up already.”

Loulou’s Griddle in the Middle is also being forced to make a major change in their menu.

Loulou’s says it was supposed to start its Friday crab feast this week.

Withouth Dungeness crab from local fisherman they can not.

“It’s gonna be a little bit tough on us because we are used to doing that crab every Friday,” said Loulou’s chef Benito Carrillo. “We have our customers that are loyal they come every Friday and now they’re calling.”

Restaurant manager say buying Dungeness crab from bordering states is too expensive so now they’ll do live abalone on Friday until the season opens.

‘We’re sorry but hopefully things work fast and we can bring our crab here to Loulou’s.”

Some of the local businesses say they do not plan on raising prices but it’s still too early to tell if they’ll need to.