CLEVELAND, Ohio -- You need a king’s treasury to buy king crab legs at today’s prices. A quick survey of suppliers turned up prices of $79 to $100 a pound in Northeast Ohio this week. These aren’t specialty king crab legs, but the same seafood that cost less than $39 a pound five years ago.

We turned to local fishmongers to understand the spike and for suggestions on alternative seafood options. They told us influences on pricing are cumulative and complicated. For various reasons, supply is shrinking and demand is not — at least not until people see the current prices.

“It started during COVID,” said Ed Muhic, frozen seafood buyer for Catanese Classics in Cleveland. “We couldn’t buy anything from the U.S. because our guys weren’t allowed to fish. We were buying from Russia and Norway.”

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