A Maryland Crabber Quoted $260 a Bushel This Summer. Here’s What’s Behind It

If you’ve ever pooled money for a Maryland crab feast, you know the price of a bushel can change the guest list.

This summer, crabber CJ Canby quoted about $260 for a bushel of live, heavy male blue crabs, according to The Baltimore Banner.

That’s enough to make you pause before inviting more people over.

Here’s what’s behind that $260 bushel, from fuel to bait to shipping.

Canby’s Bushel Price

As The Banner reported, Canby said the $260 bushel is some $10 above last season’s.

Take his $260 and that $10 at face value, and last season’s bushel was near $250.

That’s a rise of roughly 4%.

The report added that soft crabs are a dollar more each.

Dozens and Steamed Bushels

Blue crabs at Nick’s Crab Market in Southwest Baltimore were selling for $95 a dozen for large males, The Banner reported.

Extra large males went for $130 a dozen there, and jumbos for $145.

At Conrad’s Crabs in Parkville, a dozen large males cost the same $95.

Its extra large and jumbo dozens ran higher, at $140 and $195.

Conrad’s charges the same price for live and steamed crabs. Smaller crabs sell for less, the paper reported.

Size drives the price.

At $95 a dozen, you’re paying about $8 per large male.

Crab prices can change daily, The Banner said.

But a bushel of steamed males, which have more meat than females, could run as much as $400.

Lott’s $450 Bushel

Adam Lott owns Deadwood Cove Blue Crabs in Shady Side.

In June, he was selling a bushel of large, No. 1 male blue crabs for roughly $450, up from about $300 a year earlier, according to FOX45 News.

Going from $300 to $450 is a 50% rise, or $150 more per bushel.

When you compare the two quotes, check the sources.

FOX45 priced Lott’s large, No. 1 males in June, while The Banner priced Canby’s heavy males in July.

Lott told FOX45 he feels like he’s robbing people, but he has to charge that much to make any money.

He hates doing it.

FOX45 reported that watermen say buyers should expect the rising cost of doing business on the Chesapeake Bay to keep showing up in the price of blue crabs.

Conrad’s Cost for Local Crabs

John Ecker is managing partner of the Parkville crab house Conrad’s Crabs.

He told The Banner the shop is paying about 20% more this season for crabs from local watermen.

The report gives no earlier price for that 20%, so its starting point is unstated.

And what one shop pays watermen doesn’t tell you what your market charges.

Ecker blamed the rise in large part on fuel bills for those crabbers’ boats, which he called horrendous.

Fuel is a big factor.

Fuel, Bait and Shipping

Blue crabbers faced higher fuel costs this season, The Banner reported, after the U.S.-Iran conflict in the Middle East pushed fuel prices up.

AAA put Maryland's diesel price at about $5.14 a gallon on June 8, FOX45 reported.

AAA is the American Automobile Association.

FOX45 also reported that Lott estimates it costs about $800 a day to run his crabbing operation.

Fuel is 40% of that, or about $320 a day.

According to the paper, Canby's boat, the Miss Paula, needs about 15 gallons of fuel a day.

Each gallon is costing him an extra dollar.

The Banner said he typically relies on the boat 150 days a year between May and November.

If that extra dollar held for all 150 days, it comes to $15 a day and $2,250 on 15 gallons.

Bait, typically shrimp heads, costs more too, according to The Banner, since everyone is paying more to keep boats on the water.

Canby owns the fishing vessel Miss Paula in Pasadena.

FOX45 reported that he expects to spend about $3,500 more on bait this season than last year.

Canby says everything's going up.

He also pays an extra $20 a pallet to ship crabs and an extra $100 a month to store them in tanks and freezers at home, The Banner said.

All in, those costs have pushed up the asking price for crabs, the paper said.

Splitting a Bushel

Crabbers are passing some of their higher costs on to buyers, according to The Banner.

Local crabbers told The Banner they're seeing customers buy fewer or smaller crabs to save money.

Some are splitting a bushel with another family.

Split Canby's $260 bushel with another family, and your share comes to about $130.

Canby told the paper that costs add up tremendously over a season, and he doesn't expect them to come down.

He said the season has the potential to be great, with lots of crabs to be had.

But it depends on the economy and how much further people are stretched.