Saving Seafood

“Shrimp Fraud” Allegations Are Rocking the Restaurant World. We Talked to the Company Blowing the Whistle.

June 20, 2025 — Last week, the Texas-based firm SeaD Consulting released the results from a study that shook the culinary scene in Charleston, South Carolina. A team of undercover testers had paid visits to randomly selected seafood restaurants around the city and used on-the-spot genetic testing to determine whether the shrimp came from local waters. The results were shocking in a town that prides itself on abundant fresh catch: Forty out of the forty-four restaurants it tested, the company reported, served imported, farm-raised shrimp.

Charleston isn’t the first market the company has scrutinized since ramping up its testing efforts last August. SeaD has also visited New Orleans, Savannah, Tampa–St. Petersburg, and Wilmington, North Carolina, among others. Of those cities, New Orleans fared best, with only 13 percent of restaurants misrepresenting their shrimp (largely due to more stringent food labeling laws in Louisiana, according to SeaD). Savannah and Wilmington each tallied 77 percent inauthenticity. In Tampa, just two restaurants of forty-five were serving Gulf shrimp, the firm reported.

Since the Charleston bombshell dropped, the plot has thickened. Local shrimpers have come forward to vouch for clients who buy from them, since SeaD didn’t reveal the names of the forty establishments that served imported shrimp. And the S.C. Shrimpers Association has announced a lawsuit against those unidentified restaurants (referring to them as “John Doe Restaurants” in the complaint) in which it accused them of false advertising and in violation of South Carolina’s Unfair Trade Practices Act.

With the industry still reeling, we chatted with SeaD founder Dave Willams and his daughter, chief operations officer Erin Williams, to find out exactly how the team conducted its testing, if the Charleston results surprised them, and what changes they hope to see in the shrimping and restaurant industry. And, yes, they know where they’re headed next, but they’re not saying.

Read the full article at Garden and Gun

NORTH CAROLINA: Restaurateur rips NC bill HB 442: ‘Slitting the throats of the commercial fishing industry

June 20, 2025 — Ryan Speckman is the co-owner of Locals Seaford and told ABC11 that 99% of his product comes from North Carolina waters. Only salmon is brought in from Maine. He has made it a mission to highlight the work of local fishers, and his No. 1 seller year-round is shrimp.

Speckman said supply and prices are in jeopardy because of House Bill 442.

It’s a serious issue for Speckman, who said the shrimping industry itself could be destroyed.

“You’re basically slitting the throats of the commercial fishing industry,” said Speckman. “We have to decide do we want good food or do we want to rely on other countries to get the food.”

Read the full article at ABC 11

NORTH CAROLINA: New plan would pay shrimp trawlers who lose access to inland waters

June 19, 2025 — North Carolina lawmakers have a plan to pay commercial fishermen impacted by proposed restrictions on shrimp trawling in the state’s coastal sounds.

The Senate gave its final approval to the trawling ban Thursday afternoon. The proposal now goes to the House of Representatives.

Earlier Thursday, the Senate unveiled its plan to “provide annual transition payments to eligible holders of commercial fishing licenses with verifiable lands of shrimp” since 2023.

The payments would last until Oct. 1, 2028. The amount of the payment would depend on the value of eligible shrimp trip tickets submitted by the license holder, plus $180.

The bill would also increase the cost of a Standard Commercial Fishing License from $400 to $580. It would increase the license fee for non-residents to at least $2,000. The fee for a Retired Commercial Fishing License would increase from $200 to $290. The bill includes fee increases for commercial fishing vessel registrations, shellfish licenses, new fish dealers, land or sell licenses and temporary fishing licenses.

Supporters of the ban say it is necessary to help other fish stocks and that it would align North Carolina with other East Coast states that ban trawling inland. Opponents of the ban say it will destroy the shrimp industry in the state and hurt the entire commercial fishing industry.

Read the full article at WRAL

South Carolina shrimpers sue local restaurants over shrimp fraud

June 18, 2025 — The South Carolina Shrimpers Association has sued roughly 40 restaurants in the U.S. state, claiming they were falsely presenting the imported shrimp they sell as locally sourced.

“It’s illegal to say that a product is from South Carolina when it’s not, and similarly, federal law prohibits the mislabeling of the origins of seafood. It’s simply illegal at a state and federal level,” South Carolina Shrimpers Association Attorney Gedney Howe said, according to local news outlet WCSC-TV.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NORTH CAROLINA: Fishermen fight Senate’s push to restrict shrimp trawling

June 18, 2025 — North Carolina’s shrimp industry faces a potential crackdown, as state senators pushed forward a bill on June 17 with a controversial amendment banning shrimp trawling within a half mile of the shoreline and inshore waters.

House Bill 442 passed the House in May, aiming to expand recreational flounder and red snapper fishing. However, during a Tuesday morning meeting, legislators in the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Energy, and Environment added the last-minute shrimp amendment, prohibiting trawling in coastal fishing waters and within one-half mile of the shoreline, effective Dec. 1, 2025.

Sen. David Craven, R-Randolph, who introduced the amendment, said an estimated 4 pounds of “bycatch,” meaning species that were inadvertently brought in, were caught per pound of shrimp.

“Which is a lot of other species of fish that are getting caught in the net, potentially dying,” said Craven. “This has been an issue for quite some time, and I think it’s time this body addressed it.”

Supporters of the amendment argued it aligns North Carolina with South Carolina and Virginia, reducing bycatch and protecting estuarine habitats.

The bill proposes a recreational fishing season for flounder of not less than six weeks between May 15 and Nov. 15 annually, with a limit of one fish per person, per day. Similarly, a year-round red snapper season with a limit of two fish per person, per day, and a 20-inch size limit in state waters.

Read the full article at The Carolina Journal

 

US legislation would require FDA approval of foreign shrimp production facilities

May 5, 2025 — Newly introduced legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives would require the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure foreign shrimp production matches American safety standards.

“Growing up on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, I know how important the shrimp industry is – not just to our economy but to our way of life,” U.S. Representative Mike Ezell (R-Mississippi) said in a statement. “Our local Gulf Coast shrimpers are playing by the rules while foreign producers are flooding the market with unsafe, low-quality products. This bill is about leveling the playing field, protecting our American producers, and keeping America healthy.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

USDA buys over USD 100 million in domestic pollock, catfish, shrimp

March 8, 2025 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded nearly USD 47.5 million (EUR 43.8 million) worth of Alaska pollock contracts to seafood processors Trident Seafoods and Channel Fish Processing.

Additionally, the agency has awarded USD 29.3 million (EUR 27 million) in domestic catfish contracts destined for federal nutrition programs and USD 24.7 million (EUR 22.8 million) to several Louisiana-based seafood processors to supply U.S. shrimp.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Something’s fishy: Florida State research cracks the case on shrimp swap scandal

February 21, 2025 — When it comes to seafood, people want the real deal – not some fishy bait-and-switch.

But in the billion-dollar shrimp industry, it turns out diners might not be getting what they paid for: Eateries offering imported shrimp disguised as locally caught delicacies.

David Williams, founder of Houston-based food safety tech company SeaD Consulting, has spent years diving into the murky waters of seafood sourcing. His team’s research kept surfacing the same troubling question:

Do consumers really know where their shrimp come from?

“Why would you want to be lied to?” Williams said. After all, no one orders a plate of shrimp expecting a side of deception.

Here’s why it matters: The seafood industry is swimming with imported shrimp, often from farms abroad that may use antibiotics and questionable practices banned here in the states. But restaurants aren’t always upfront about what they’re serving (sometimes even they don’t know), leaving diners in the dark about what’s really on their plates. And it takes business away from U.S. shrimpers.

So in 2022, Williams took his concerns to Florida State University assistant professor Prashant Singh, hoping to crack the case of the sneaky shrimp swap.

Read the full article at The Florida Times-Union