September 16, 2015 — A group of federal legislators from Virginia and Maryland urged the White House this week to do more to curb the mislabeling of Chesapeake Bay blue crab.
In a letter Monday, U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and Rep. Rob Wittman from Virginia and Sen. Barbara Mikulski from Maryland applauded President Barack Obama for launching the Presidential Task Force to Combat Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing and Seafood Fraud earlier this year.
But, they said, its draft recommendations don’t go far enough to protect area watermen from dishonest people willing to import foreign crabmeat and repackage it as Atlantic or Chesapeake Bay blue crab.
Federal agents are investigating allegations that Casey’s Seafood Inc. in Newport News did just that. No charges have been filed in connection with the case, but DNA tests on several of Casey’s Seafood products contained mixtures of Atlantic blue crab and cheaper alternatives native to foreign waters. All of the products were labeled “Product of the USA.”
“This deceptive labeling misleads consumers and threatens the livelihood of the watermen in our states,” reads the letter, which indicates Virginia’s blue crab fishery generates nearly $30 million in total fishing revenue for watermen each year. Maryland’s blue crabs generate over $58 million annually.
Read the full story at The Virginian-Pilot