Forget Hot Dogs, Glut Means Cheap Lobster Prices

A glut has driven down lobster prices in Maine _ bringing cheer to lobster-loving consumers at the start of the state's tourist season but gloom among lobstermen.

Retailers have been selling small soft-shell lobsters in the Portland area for an unusually low $3.79 to $4.99 a pound. At those prices, lobsters have been selling for less than the per-pound price of bologna at many supermarket deli counters.

Zain Nemazie, of Austin, Texas, was expecting low lobster prices _ but not this low _ while on vacation in Maine with his family.

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