In the case of lobster, I wonder if the issue was taste or freshness. If they "washed up on the beach in two-foot-high piles", it's easy to imagine that people

In the case of lobster, I wonder if the issue was taste or freshness. If they "washed up on the beach in two-foot-high piles", it's easy to imagine that people were eating not-so-fresh seafood and getting sick, giving it a bad reputation.