A Broken System: Why Shore Price Matters
For generations, Canadian lobstermen have been the backbone of coastal communities. But over time, the system built around them has shifted, from independence to control. From fair trade to gatekeeping. Dealers, wholesalers, and middlemen dominate the supply chain, often determining pricing with little regard for the men and women who actually harvest the catch.
The "shore price" is what fishermen are paid directly for their lobsters. This should reflect the true value of the work, risk, and quality behind each haul. Instead, it’s been manipulated by opaque systems and entrenched networks designed to keep fishermen dependent. That risk? It’s real. These are individuals facing brutal seasons, freezing temps, dangerous seas, and rising fuel costs, just to land a catch.
The opaque systems? They’re pricing structures that shift without reason or explanation. Fishermen are often given no insight into how prices are set or where their lobster ends up. These entrenched networks? They’re the long-standing relationships between dealers and regulators, what many call the "Lobster Mafia" who control quotas, freeze out independents, and retaliate against those who try to sell outside the system. This is not a free market. It’s a rigged one, built on licensing loopholes, exclusive quotas, and handshake deals.
The Lobsterboys Mission:
At Lobsterboys, we’re not just another buyer. We’re fishermen ourselves. Fourth generation. We banded our first lobsters when we were just kids. We know what it’s like to struggle in this industry.
We didn’t come back to play the same game. We came back to change it. Lobsterboys was built around a direct model: no middlemen, no nonsense. We buy direct from fishermen. We sell directly to customers. And we bring transparency into every step of the process, from sourcing and protein testing to pricing and payment.
We’ve seen what bad actors can do. Some dealers exploit their position, locking fishermen into unfair prices, demanding loyalty while withholding payment, or threatening them with blacklisting if they sell elsewhere. That intimidation creates fear, isolates communities, and kills innovation. Our model breaks that cycle. We work in the open. We tell you our prices. And we pay you what it’s worth.
From Price Takers to Price Makers
Reclaiming the shore price isn’t just about getting more money per pound. It’s about rewriting the rules. We believe the most successful fishermen of the future won’t be the ones who simply catch more lobster. They’ll be the ones who:
- Hold their own quota
- Sell to whoever pays the most, every single day
- And cut out the middlemen entirely
This kind of independence is possible, but it starts with information. The reality is, many fishermen don’t even realize they’re being taken advantage of. They’ve been conditioned to accept unfair prices, gatekeeping, and silence as part of the job. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
That’s why awareness is the first step. Once you see the system for what it is, you can start to break away from it. Fishermen need to band together, not compete against each other, but unite for collective strength. The enemy isn’t your neighbor on the water, it’s the system keeping you both in check. That means demanding transparency in pricing. Calling out unfair practices. And standing strong when someone finally says, "No more."
That’s what we’re building with Lobsterboys. A network of like-minded fishermen who share knowledge, compare prices, protect quality, and gain the confidence to operate freely. Because if enough of us walk away from the old system, if we stop accepting the status quo, we become too powerful to ignore. That’s the real movement Lobsterboys is leading.
A Call To The Industry
It’s Time to Choose.
If you’re a fisherman: you deserve better. If you’re a supplier: demand transparency. And if you’re a consumer: know where your lobster comes from.
This is bigger than a brand. It’s a battle for the soul of an industry. One where the people doing the work, the ones hauling traps before dawn, risking their lives at sea, are finally valued the way they should be.
Reclaiming the shore price means reshaping the power dynamics. It means forcing a system that’s worked for a select few to work for everyone. And it means giving fishermen back the things they’ve been slowly stripped of their control and independence.
At Lobsterboys, we’re not waiting for regulators or industry giants to make the first move. We’ve already made ours, and we’re not turning back.
