Where to buy delicious and fresh seafood for Easter, Hobart crayfish back on the menu

Fishmongers are preparing for a ‘huge’ Easter trade this weekend as they urge Tasmanians to shop local after a tough couple of years. PRICES + WHERE TO BUY >>

SEAFOOD sales are spiking in the lead up to Good Friday, as sellers are urging Tasmanians to buy local this Easter.

Mako Seafood fishmonger co-owner Ben Cooper said Easter trade was “huge” for his Hobart waterfront business.

“Easter’s the last big busy period before November-December,” he said.

“We do rely on Easter a bit to carry us through.”

Mr Cooper said fresh Tasmanian seafood was “hard to beat” for tourists and locals planning a feast with family and friends.

“At the end of Easter it’s pretty rare for us to have any fish left,” he said.

Mr Cooper said popular seafood on the menu included flathead, blue-eye trevalla, crayfish, snapper, blue swimmer crab and spotted trevally.

Issac (Issac) Riseley with fish and crayfish from Mako Seafood on the Hobart waterfront ready for Easter. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

He said crays had been selling recently for $75 a kilo.

Mako Seafood won’t be hiking their prices for Easter but Mr Cooper said some fare – such as flathead – had risen in cost lately in Tasmania amid availability issues.

Bryce Way catches lobster to sell off the wharf at Margate, and said times had been tough since coronavirus obliterated international markets.

“The Australian market’s been heavily impacted by the floods,” he said.

“It would be nice indeed to have a boost at Easter time. I know there’s a lot of people hoping for it.”

Mr Way said lobster fishers had distributed their crays to outlets like Mures, Gourmet Seafoods at Cambridge and Tony Garth Seafoods in Margate, but some would still sell live crays directly from the wharf this week.

“Always try and eat local,” he said.

Where to buy delicious fresh crayfish in Hobart

Hundreds of lively crayfish are once again being snapped up at Hobart’s Franklin Wharf after more than a year-long hiatus.

Local rock lobster fisherman Stephen Bradshaw and his fellow weather-beaten crew have reeled up 750 crayfish in the first haul since February last year.

Captain Bradshaw said that for the last year-or-so the water conditions had either been too hot, too rainy, or not saline enough for the temperamental crustaceans.

Recently, however, the conditions have been just right, and in his most recent catch Bradshaw’s Southern Rock Lobster managed to haul back 600 kilograms of the arthropods.

However the demand from China has largely dried up due to the coronavirus and many restaurants in NSW are closed due to the flooding.

Captain Bradshaw said the local demand was going strong, however, with curious customers coming in to get a rare taste of freshly caught Hobart crayfish on the cheap.

“At the moment we can get a crayfish for $40. Going back when it was $110, $90 no one could afford them here,” Captain Bradshaw said.

“So it’s actually good for the local people and the Australians. I hear a lot of people saying they haven’t had crayfish for years, because they hadn’t been able to afford them.”

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