As the number of the sick and the dead continue to rise alarmingly in China, the economic effects of the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak were felt in the Santa Barbara Harbor. The tariff wars between the U.S. and China put a 42 percent tax on lobster last year in one of the highest-paying markets in the world for the seafood delicacy. When China closed its imported live seafood market in late January because of the infectious epidemic, lobster prices tumbled from $15 to $8 per pound overnight.
“Santa Barbara brings in $4 million to $5 million a season,” said Chris Voss, president of Commercial Fishermen of Santa Barbara. The prized crustacean had been stockpiled for China’s late January Lunar New Year festivities, he said, from New England to Australia. When China closed its borders to live-animal foodstuffs about 10 days ago, everyone was hit.
Santa Barbara is a fraction of the world’s providers, Voss noted — he’d seen lobster go for as much as $70 a pound in Australia. The drop-off fell toward the end of the season in Santa Barbara, which runs from October to mid-March, and many lobstermen just stayed in port for a few days. Most recently, spiny lobster prices had risen to $10 a pound.
