Saving Seafood

Gulf fish farming project at risk as judge pulls nationwide permit

May 2, 2025 — A federal judge repealed a nationwide permit for industrial fish farming off the coasts of Florida and California. Instead, the company leading the project will have to turn to individualized permits.

Ocean Era, a Hawaii-based company, proposed a series of industrial fishnets, including three that would be located roughly 45-miles southwest of Sarasota.

Their proposal predates a President Donald Trump 2020 executive order that initially created these “blanket” permits that could be granted by the Army Corp of Engineers.

With U.S. District Judge Kymberly Evanson revoking the nationwide permit on March 17, Ocean Era would have to turn to individualized permits to create fish farms.

Read the full story at WUWF

FLORIDA: Gov. DeSantis announces longest Gulf red snapper season

April 29, 2025 — Florida is ready to allow its longest-ever Gulf red snapper recreational season for 2025. Anglers will be allowed to harvest the gamefish for a total of 126 days total, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday.

Gulf red snapper management was previously handled by the federal government, but they shifted management to Gulf states over the years.

“When I became governor, a lot of anglers would tell me the way the federal government was managing the red snapper was not an accurate representation of what was actually there,” DeSantis said.

Read the full story at the South Florida Sun Sentinel

Florida Keys lobster industry, reliant on Chinese consumers, braces for potential tariff impact

April 24, 2025 — In Conch Key, Kelly Cordova’s crews are getting traps ready for lobster season.

She’s been on the water her whole life.

“This is our family’s business,” said Cordova. “My mom and dad started when they were 15.”

But even as the Trump administration softens its tone on China tariffs, there’s still uncertainty over the possibility of reciprocal tariffs tacked on to the live lobster they export.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do. It’s really, really scary right now,” said Cordova.

Spiny lobster is a multi-million dollar industry in Florida and the Florida Keys are the biggest producer, harvesting nearly 4 million pounds last season.

Read the full story at Local 10

Florida cold-chain logistics company issues strategic response to U.S. tariffs

April 8, 2025 — Ft. Pierce, Florida, U.S.A.-based Burnsed Trucking, which specializes in less-than-truckload (LTL) and full-truckload (FTL) seafood logistics, has issued a strategic response to the U.S. tariffs. 

According to CEO Fred Baedorf, a major shift in global seafood sourcing and distribution has been taking place in the U.S. since before the Trump administration’s tariff program was announced.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Plenty of fish: Gov. DeSantis says Donald Trump ‘supportive’ of Atlantic snapper harvest

April 7, 2025 — Florida’s Governor says the federal government may come through in expanding the red snapper season in the Atlantic.

“I think the administration is supportive of it,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said.

“I have mentioned it to the President, but I definitely mentioned it also to the Secretary of the Commerce. And I know they’re still filling out NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and they’re doing, still, all that. And there’s a lot of irons in the fire, but returning this to state management would be a home run.”

Recreational anglers got just one day in 2024, though commercial operations had from July until the end of the year.

Read the full article at Florida Politics 

FLORIDA: Two ocean drones launched to map Florida’s coastline for the first time

March 31, 2025 — Florida’s coastline is about to get mapped, and it’s all thanks to two unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) launched in St. Petersburg.

The USVs, managed by the company Saildrone, are helping the Sunshine State on its multiyear mission to survey coastal waters within the continental shelf.

“At 2,170 kilometers long, Florida’s coastline is second only to Alaska among U.S. states,” the company says. “Many parts of the Florida coast remain unsurveyed, with existing nautical charts relying on outdated and low-resolution data.”

The Florida Seafloor Mapping Initiative may be the solution. Saildrone explains in news releases that the “Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) is managing the project, using $100 million in state funds to collect the data and create a public portal for the new imagery and information.”

Read the full article at NBC Miami

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

FLORIDA: 96% of Tampa Bay area restaurants imply they serve local shrimp while serving imported shrimp

January 31, 2025 —  A new report said shrimp consumers in the Tampa Bay area are being misled as most of the restaurants evaluated say they serve local shrimp but don’t.

The Southern Shrimp Alliance, which is an organization of shrimp fisherman, processors and other members of the industry, said only two of the 44 restaurants sampled in Tampa and St. Petersburg are selling Gulf Shrimp as implied.

A food safety tech company called SeaD Consulting collected the shellfish from the restaurants for testing. The company uses genetic testing to monitor fraud in the seafood industry.

The only two restaurants found to be serving locally caught shrimp were Tampa’s Salt Shack on the Bay and St. Pete’s Stillwaters Tavern, according to a news release.

The other food establishments use farm-raised shrimp from countries like India, Vietnam and Ecuador, according to SeaD’s research.

“When diners think of Tampa and St. Pete, they think of seafood fresh from the Gulf,” said David Williams, Commercial Fishery Scientist and Founder of SEAD Consulting, who led the sampling effort. “To discover that the majority of restaurants are serving shrimp sourced from overseas is a wake-up call for the area’s food scene.”

Read the full article at WTSP

FLORIDA: Tampa Bay area seafood restaurants found mislabeling shrimp

January 28, 2025 — Tampa and St. Petersburg are facing a startling revelation with only two out of 44 sampled restaurants serve authentic, wild-caught Gulf shrimp.

A recent investigation, led by SeaD Consulting, exposes a 96% fraud rate, with most establishments relying on imported, farm-raised shrimp from countries like India, Vietnam and Ecuador.

The investigation identified just two restaurants as serving genuine Gulf shrimp, putting into question the region’s seafood reputation.

“When diners think of Tampa and St. Pete, they think of seafood fresh from the Gulf,” said David Williams, a commercial fishery scientist and founder of SeaD Consulting, in a news release. “To discover that the majority of restaurants are serving shrimp sourced from overseas is a wake-up call for the area’s food scene.”

Read the full article at The Center Square

FLORDIA: Along Gulf Coast, Donald Trump’s plan for ‘Gulf of America’ touches residents’ pride; some wonder what difference will it make

January 24, 2025 — President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico has left residents along the Gulf Coast sharply divided. Some say it awakens their pride in the U.S. while others suggest it’s a silly distraction.

The order, which Trump signed Monday night, his first day in office, directs the Secretary of the Interior Department to take all the needed steps to change the name to “Gulf of America” within 30 days.

The order says in part that the Gulf plays “a pivotal role in shaping America’s future and the global economy, and in recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy and its people, I am directing that it officially be renamed the Gulf of America.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis has already embraced the change. He cited the new name in an executive order earlier this week attributing inclement Winter weather to a “low pressure moving across the Gulf of America.”

Cedar Key, a quaint fishing town in Levy County, is a cluster of islands that extend about three miles into the Gulf of Mexico from Florida’s mainland. One resident for more than a decade, 78-year-old Air Force retiree Thomas McKee, said he sees no reason for changing the name.

Read the full article at Florida Politics