Saving Seafood

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 

US lawmakers move to block NOAA Fisheries from closing red snapper fishery

January 21, 2025 —  Federal lawmakers from the U.S. state of Florida have introduced legislation to block NOAA Fisheries from closing the recreational South Atlantic red snapper fishery for three months of the year.

“Florida’s fishing industry is a multi-billion dollar economic driver in our state, supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs and attracting visitors to communities along our coast,” U.S. Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida) said in a statement. “We’ve made great strides in Florida to ensure our natural resources are preserved and protected for years to come, including rebuilding the Red Snapper population. I’m proud to work with [U.S. Representative John Rutherford (R-Florida)] on the Red Snapper Act to support our state’s commercial and recreational fishing industry and ensure their success isn’t limited by federal government’s outdated data and regulations.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

FLORIDA: Lifeline could be coming for fisheries still reeling from Ian

December 16, 2024 — We all remember the images of shrimp boats stacked on top of each other after Hurricane Ian made landfall in Southwest Florida. It wasn’t just the shrimp boats, but also fish houses and much of the rest of the fishing industry was severely damaged as well. Over two years later, federal aid has yet come.

A bill recently passed by voice vote in the House of Representatives could throw a lifeline post-disaster to American fisheries.

House Bill 5103 (Fishery Improvement to Streamline Untimely Regulatory Hurdles post Emergency Situations) FISHES Act passed in House in early December to help streamline the process for fisheries to receive aid.

“As we saw in Southwest Florida, time of the essence once a disaster hits,” said Florida Congressman Byron Donalds (R).

But in the past, federal aid to fisheries only came after a long grueling review process that took years. Something that Congressman Donalds is looking to change with the FISHES Act.

“What the FISHES Act does, it makes two review processes happen concurrently and requires a response to the property owner happens within 90 days,” said Rep. Donalds.

Read the full article at Fox 4

Why Texas gets 9 miles of off-shore territory but Louisiana gets 3 — and how it could change

December 2, 2024 — U.S. Rep. Garret Graves intends to sprint toward the finish line for the 118th Congress, which convenes Monday and disbands in a month, by pushing an issue he has been working since he was a Capitol Hill staffer 20 years ago.

“This has been an ongoing effort for me, for many years, to give Louisiana parity,” Graves said.

Graves, a Baton Rouge Republican who steps down when the 119th Congress assumes office on Jan. 3, teamed with Rep. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, on a bill that would give Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama the same offshore sovereignty as Texas and Florida — moving the boundary line from three nautical miles to nine — thereby allowing Louisiana control of more energy exploration and fishing rights.

Graves said last week in announcing the Offshore Parity Act of 2024, “I’m not sure who was negotiating for us generations ago, but that is just ridiculous.”

History, rather than bonehead negotiators, played a greater role in setting state sovereignty over offshore waters.

Read the full story at NOLA.com

FLORIDA: Florida invests USD 1 million in fisheries recovery following hurricanes

October 30, 2024 — The U.S. state of Florida has awarded USD 1 million (EUR 924,274) to help the state’s struggling commercial fisheries and aquaculture sector recover from damage inflicted by a trio of hurricane landfalls.

“The [state’s] fishing industry took a direct hit from hurricanes Debby and Helene, and so did the hardworking Floridians who make their living on the water,” Governor Ron DeSantis said in a statement. “Today’s investments will help to rebuild critical waterside infrastructure and help get Floridians in the fishing and aquaculture industries back to full operations.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Marine Debris From Hurricanes Helene And Milton Could Take Years To Remove

October 24, 2024 — The recovery and cleanup process following hurricanes Helene and Milton will take months or even years to fully complete.

But the cleanup extends well beyond people’s homes and businesses. Marine debris has also found its way onshore, as well as into Florida’s canals and rivers, adding another layer to the cleanup.

“After hurricanes, they create a large pulse of debris in a short amount of time,” explains Ashley Hill, the Florida Regional Coordinator for NOAA’s marine debris program.

Hurricanes are so powerful that they are able to move large amounts of water. The water displacement, combined with the wind and storm surge, pushes trash, plastic and debris that has been floating around the Gulf of Mexico on the Florida coast and inland. All the trash now has to be picked up and removed.

What is marine debris?

Marine debris is any persistent, manufactured or processed solid material that intentionally or unintentionally ends up in our oceans or Great Lakes, according to NOAA.

“Anything human-made and solid can become marine debris once lost or littered in these aquatic environments,” says NOAA. “Our trash has been found in every corner of our ocean.”

Just one year after Hurricane Irma hit Florida in 2017, more than 250,000 cubic yards of marine debris had been reported removed at an estimated cost of $43 million, according to NOAA.

Hurricanes carry marine debris well inland

Hill explains that the marine debris removal following hurricanes Helene and Milton will take a very long time and is also very expensive.

“We’re finding things months, sometimes years after a particular hurricane,” said Hill. “A great example of that is we’re getting close to funding projects that will be removing some debris that we still have remaining from Hurricane Ian, which made landfall about two years ago.”

Read the full article at The Weather Channel

Biden, DeSantis sound alarm as Milton barrels toward Florida

October 9, 2024 — Floridians evacuating what could be the most powerful hurricane to strike the Tampa Bay region in a century crawled Tuesday along Florida’s major highways, seeking higher ground before Milton’s expected Wednesday night landfall.

Scientists at the National Hurricane Center said the slightly weakened hurricane — which skirted the northern Yucatan Peninsula on Monday night into Tuesday morning — continued to track eastward across a warm Gulf of Mexico, drawing up energy as it approaches Florida’s central Gulf Coast.

In brief remarks before reporters at the White House, President Joe Biden sounded the alarm about Milton’s threat, noting that the storm was projected to both strike Florida’s west coast as a hurricane and possibly exit the east coast and into the Atlantic Ocean at hurricane strength.

Read the full article at E&E News