May 20, 2024 — Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has signed a bill into law requiring grocery store delis and restaurants in the U.S. state to label whether seafood being served is imported or domestically produced.
Introduced earlier in the year by Alabama State Representative Chip Brown (R-Hollinger’s Island), the law also requires those establishments to designate whether seafood is wild-caught or farm-raised.
May 12, 2024 — Restaurants and grocery stores will have to label their seafood as imported or domestic, after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill requiring it into law Friday.
“This is as bad as it’s ever been. We need help,” Kerry Mitchell, secretary of the Alabama Commercial Fishermen Association, a newly formed nonprofit advocating for fishermen in the area. “I’m happy that the government is talking about it…legislators are finally helping us.”
HB66, sponsored by State Rep. Chip Brown (R-Hollinger’s Island), requires food service establishments, like restaurants, grocery stores and delis, to label seafood as “imported,” or note the product’s country of origin. Domestic seafood can be labeled with the state of origin, U.S.A. or United States of America.
In addition, the law requires food service establishments to distinguish between “wild fish” and “farm-raised fish,” but only for fish and shrimp. These labels must be displayed conspicuously, for example on the product itself, attached to a menu or displayed on a sign. Establishments that violate these rules will be fined after the first offense.
The goal of the bill is to bring awareness to consumers about the origin of their seafood and provide relief to Alabama’s fisherman, who have been struggling with low dock prices of shrimp due to the influx of imports. Currently, foreign shrimp accounts for 94% of the U.S. market, Caine O’Rear, communications director for Mobile Baykeeper, said.
Last year, the Bayou La Batre City Council—the epicenter of Alabama’s seafood industry—declared a disaster, requesting help from Ivey for the seafood industry. “Shrimp dumping,” where foreign, typically farm-raised shrimp floods the market, causing dock prices to drop had driven the industry to the point of near-collapse.
“I’ve never seen shrimp prices this low, ever,” Amanda Schjott, a resident of the area whose husband has worked in shrimping since he was a teenager, told the Mobile Press-Register in August. “It’s a dying industry, and they’re killing it even faster.”
Brown says that the hope is that demand for domestic seafood, and particularly Alabama seafood, will increase as a result. Consumers will be more aware of the kind of seafood they’re getting, he says, and in turn, they’ll ask for the local kind.
October 28, 2020 — Hurricane Zeta slammed into storm-weary Louisiana on Wednesday with New Orleans squarely in its path, threatening to push up to 9 feet of sea water inland and batter homes and businesses with fierce winds in a Gulf Coast region already pounded by multiple storms this year.
Some roads were flooded near the coast, where forecasters said Zeta was making landfall around Terrebone Bay near Cocodrie. Rain pelted the French Quarter in New Orleans, where workers closed one of the last floodgates as residents braced for Zeta, though a few people were still out on Bourbon Street with umbrellas. The iconic streetcars were idled and City Hall closed, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said.
Zeta had top sustained winds of 110 (177 kph) as a Category 2 hurricane and was the 27th named storm of a historically busy Atlantic hurricane season — with over a month left before it ends.
Tropical storm warnings were issued as far away as the north Georgia mountains, highly unusual for the region. New Orleans has been in the warning areas of seven previous storms that veered east or west this season. Zeta was staying on course.
April 10, 2018 — The National Marine Fisheries Service [NMFS] has officially accepted Alabama’s plan to manage its own seasons for recreational red snapper fishing — paving the way for 47-day seasons in the next two years.
As Lagniappe has previously reported, the plan manages the season lengths in state and federal waters off the Alabama coast is part of a two-year pilot program approved by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council in February.
For the first time in years, Gulf states will be able to manage recreational snapper fishing off their respective coasts through individual Exempted Fishing Permits (EFPs) submitted to NMFS.
The decision comes after years of shorter and shorter snapper seasons that frustrated anglers and commercial fisherman alike until a consortium of Gulf leaders negotiated a compromise through U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that extended the 2017 season.
Gov. Kay Ivey announced Friday that Alabama’s plan, which will create a 47-day season, will be in place for the next two years. In 2018, it will run from June 1 to September 2 on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays and the entire week on the Fourth of July. It would run concurrently in state waters and in federal waters, which begin nine miles from the coast.
“I am very pleased that the U.S. Department of Commerce, through the National Marine Fisheries Service, has granted Alabama an Exempted Fishing Permit for the next two red snapper seasons,” Ivey said of the plan’s approval. “Following the directives from President Trump to cut down on federal regulations, this decision empowers Alabama to manage our resources instead of bureaucrats in Washington.”
Ivey also noted the EFP program was made possible by language Sen. Richard Shelby added to the FY2017 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill. It directed the NMFS to develop the pilot program to allow states more control over reef fish management activities.
In a statement, Ivey said Alabama’s red snapper fishery is a big part of “the coastal culture and economy of” of the state and thanked Shelby and Rep. Bradley Byrne for their congressional efforts to give Alabama more autonomy in managing its coastal resources.
She also made a special note of the efforts Alabama is also indebted to Conservation and Natural Resources Commissioner Chris Blankenship made to push for alternatives to federal snapper seasons that had become shorter and shorter in recent years.
“The red snapper management granted by the EFP will allow Alabama to use the information from the Alabama Snapper Check Program, as well as the terabytes of fisheries data we have collected on the red snapper population in the Alabama Artificial Reef Zones, to show we can sustainably manage this fishery,” Blankenship said “I would like to thank Marine Resources Division Director Scott Bannon and Chief Biologist Kevin Anson for shepherding the permit request through the regulatory process.”
The federal charter season for red snapper is not included in Alabama’s new permit and is expected to be announced by NMFS sometime in April, though it is expected to be longer than the 2017 federal charter season, which stretched 49 days.
Ivey’s office said data collected through the Alabama Snapper Check Program the past four years was critical in securing the additional red snapper fishing days, and reminded fishermen they are still required to report their red snapper harvests through the program.
Only one report is required per vessel trip, and anglers can provide details via a smartphone app available under “Outdoor Alabama” in the iTunes or Google Play app stores; online at www.outdooralabama.com; or by paper forms available at select coastal public boat launches.
Read the full story at the Lagniappe Weekly
June 5, 2017 — Gov. Kay Ivey penned a letter to President Donald Trump asking for an extension to the 2017 federal Red Snapper season.
“Red Snapper fishing is vital to Alabamians as it is a major source of recreational enjoyment and provides great economic impact,” Ivey said in a news release Friday.
One reason for the short season by the National Marine Fisheries Service is it is believed that the species is struggling for survival, but the governor in her letter to the president outlines that’s not the case.
“The population of this valuable species is thriving,” Ivey wrote. “The average size fish caught last year was nine pounds compared to three pounds less than a decade ago.”
Ivey’s office is arguing that the federal data is inaccurate, and doesn’t reflect what the state data indicates.
“The stock assessment for this species is several years behind and does not adequately represent the current population,” Ivey said.
Ivey asked for the season to be extended to include every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in June, as well as July 3 and July 4.
“I hope the President will do the right thing and take swift action on my request and right this wrong,” Ivey stated.