Saving Seafood

What’s working, what’s not in the shutdown

October 28, 2025 — The U.S. government shutdown has led to some concerns among fishermen and dealers regarding permit renewals. Among other things, the NOAA Fisheries Southeast Region Permits Office has been unable to process renewals, with some permit holders finding their renewal applications in limbo.

Those with permits expiring during the shutdown have been reassured by the Southeast Regional Permit Office that their permits will remain valid even after their expiration dates, provided they have submitted their renewal applications prior to the existing permit’s expiration. The Southeast Permit Office notification applies to This notification applies to all Gulf of America, South Atlantic, and Highly Migratory Species vessel permits, and dealer permits.

“The permit extension issued by NOAA Fisheries minimizes the potential impact of a government shutdown on shrimpers who file for permit renewals in a timely fashion. We have not heard that permit delays are causing any disruption to normal fishing operations,” says Blake Price, deputy director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA).

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Shrimpers need honesty in their back yard to survive

August 7, 2025 — In a city of beaches and shrimp boats, with pelicans and seagulls peppering the sky, a new investigation by SeaD Consulting has revealed widespread misrepresentation of shrimp sourcing at sampled Corpus Christi restaurants. Genetic testing, conducted with SeaD Consulting’s Rapid ID Genetic Hi-accuracy Test (RIGHTTest™), of shrimp dishes served in 44 Corpus Christi-area restaurants showed that only 19 restaurants were confirmed to be serving genuine wild-caught domestic/Gulf shrimp, while 25 were not serving wild-caught domestic/Gulf shrimp despite menu claims, staff assurances, or marketing.

“With shrimp boats docked alongside coastal restaurants surrounding Corpus Christi, there is no excuse for more than half of sampled restaurants to be duping their diners,” said Erin Williams, Founder and COO of SeaD Consulting. “Consumers should be able to trust that when they order Gulf shrimp, that’s exactly what’s on their plate.”

Restaurants Verified for Serving Gulf Shrimp

The following 19 restaurants were confirmed to be serving authentic Gulf shrimp:

  • U & I Seafood & Steaks – 309 S Water St, Corpus Christi, TX 78401
  • Executive Surf Club – 306 N Chaparral St, Corpus Christi, TX 78401
  • Water Street Oyster Bar – 309 N Water St, Corpus Christi, TX 78401
  • Paradise Key Dockside Bar & Grill – 165 Cove Harbor N, Rockport, TX 78382
  • Los Comales – 431 Hwy 35 S Rockport, TX 78382
  • Pier 77 – 3307 Hwy 35 N Fulton, TX 78358
  • Shrimp-It-Up – 120 S 8th St, Aransas Pass, TX 78336
  • Texas A1 – 14241 Northwest Blvd Ste 105, Corpus Christi, TX 78410
  • Gallery 41 – 100 N Shoreline Blvd, Corpus Christi, TX 78401
  • Black Diamond Oyster Bar – 418 NAS Dr, Corpus Christi, TX 78418
  • Snoopy’s Pier & Restaurant – 13313 S Padre Island Dr, Corpus Christi, TX 78418
  • Doc’s Seafood & Steaks – 13309 S Padre Island Dr, Corpus Christi, TX 78418
  • Angry Marlin – 15605 S Padre Island Dr, Corpus Christi, TX 78418
  • Trout Street Bar + Grill – 104 W Cotter Ave, Port Aransas, TX 78373
  • Old Fulton Seafood Café & Steakhouse – 2828 Hwy 35 N, Rockport, TX 78382
  • Charlotte Plummer’s Seafare Restaurant – 202 N Fulton Beach Rd, Rockport, TX 78382
  • Mickey’s Bar & Grill – 430 Ransom Rd, Aransas Pass, TX 78336
  • Catfish Charlie’s – 5830 McArdle Rd #12, Corpus Christi, TX 78412
  • Saltwater Grill – 2401 Cimarron Blvd, Corpus Christi, TX 78414

Misrepresentation Findings

Of the 25 restaurants not serving Gulf shrimp:

  • 21 explicitly described their shrimp as local or domestic either verbally or on the menu.
  • 4 implied Gulf or wild-caught sourcing through branding or menu descriptions.

SeaD Consulting’s testing revealed blatant examples of explicit inauthenticity, where menus and staff descriptions confidently claimed Gulf shrimp that turned out to be imported or farm-raised shrimp.

Shrimp boat owner in Palacios, Texas and Southern Shrimp Alliance Board Member Ken Garcia said, “We don’t want these restaurants to stop saying they are selling Gulf shrimp, we want them to actually start serving it.”

Impact and Next Steps

Imported shrimp—often produced under unregulated environmental and labor conditions—undercuts the local shrimp industry, erodes consumer trust, and misleads customers who pay premium prices expecting fresh, local seafood.

In May 2025, Texas passed legislation requiring all food service suppliers, wholesalers, distributors, and wholesale distributors selling shrimp in Texas to include a label to the restaurant with “clear and conspicuous notice stating whether the shrimp is imported.” Further, the law prohibits restaurants from labeling or representing imported shrimp as “Texas shrimp,” “Gulf shrimp,” “American shrimp,” or “Domestic shrimp.” However, consumers must still ask about the country of origin of the shrimp if it is not indicated as local wild-caught. If there is any violation of these requirements, the legislation authorizes the Texas Health Department, a public health district, a county, or a municipality to impose an administrative penalty. The law takes effect on September 1, 2025.

Follow-up genetic testing is also planned to track progress and encourage honesty in seafood sourcing.

About the Southern Shrimp Alliance

The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) represents shrimp fishermen, processors, and businesses in the eight warmwater shrimp-producing states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas. SSA funds multi-state investigations into seafood mislabeling to protect the domestic shrimp industry and consumers.

About SeaD Consulting

SeaD Consulting collaborates with seafood producers, researchers, governments, and environmental advocates to promote sustainability and truth in seafood sourcing. SeaD holds the patent for the RIGHTTest™ (Rapid ID Genetic High-Accuracy Test) and leads landmark studies across the Gulf and beyond.

For more on the investigation, photos, B-roll, SME interviews, and access to the full report, visit Media Kit or contact Glenda Beasley at 512.750.5199.

Disclaimer: SeaD’s testing and reporting is intended to be used as an investigatory tool to assist the restaurant industry’s fight against seafood mislabeling and is not intended for use in any legal proceedings, nor may SeaD’s data, testing, or reporting be used in any legal proceeding without the express written authorization of SeaD.

 

Southern states lay down the law on seafood labeling

June 30, 2025 — Over the course of the past year, Dave Williams, a commercial fishery scientist and founder of SeaD Consulting, has been testing shrimp in restaurants all around the Gulf states, Georgia, and the Carolinas to find out if they are selling imported farmed shrimp as Gulf shrimp. The results have been astounding, with restaurants tested in Charleston, South Carolina, showing a 90 percent fraud rate.  

Williams’s work, sponsored by the industry group Southern Shrimp Alliance, has prompted the passage of new laws and increased enforcement of existing laws aimed at protecting the U.S. domestic shrimp fleet.  

Alabama’s Seafood Labeling Law was passed in May 2024 and took effect on October 1, 2024. It requires food service establishments including restaurants, grocery store delis and seafood retailers, to list the country of origin of its fish and shellfish, or that the product was imported.

The law also requires labels to state if the seafood was farm raised or wild caught.  Suppliers must provide the seafood’s country of origin to the restaurants and delis. The law is enforced by the state Department of Public Health and consumers who believe there is a violation of the law can file a complaint via an online form.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

2024 FDA shrimp refusals for banned antibiotics hit highest level in eight years

February 18, 2025 — According to the Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refusals of foreign shrimp for banned antibiotics in 2024 were at their highest rates since 2016.

The FDA refused 81 shipments for antibiotic contamination last year, with the vast majority of contaminated products coming from India (31) and Vietnam (18). Many of the refused shipments came from Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP)-certified producers and processors.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Southern Shrimp Alliance echoes US congressman’s calls for tariffs on foreign seafood

February 13, 2025 — U.S. Representative Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana) recently sent a letter to the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump that offered simple advice on Trump’s tariff policies: To save American seafood, tax imports from China, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam. 

Higgins shared the letter he sent to the president on social media platform X with the caption, “Protecting the American seafood industry requires aggressive action.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Southern Shrimp Alliance pushing US to add another company to Uyghur forced labor list

January 2, 2024 — The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) is asking the U.S. Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF) to add Rongcheng Sanyue Foodstuff to the U.S.’s Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act’s (UFLPA) entity list – a move which would effectively ban the import of any product from the company.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) added seafood to its list of priorities in the UFLPA in July 2024 – the first addition to the list of high-priority sectors since 2022. The addition signaled the DHS considers seafood as being at a higher risk of utilizing forced labor or state labor transfers of Uyghurs or other ethnic minorities from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

New Legislation Seeks to Amend Magnuson-Stevens Act, Address Economic Causes of Fishery Disasters

October 22, 2024 — Congresswoman Nancy Mace (SC-01) introduced the Protect American Fisheries Act of 2024, a law that found the support of various fishing organizations, including the Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA), along with bipartisan support.

According to a press release from Mace’s office, the bill would amend the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, adding economic causes as allowable grounds for declaring a fishery resource disaster.

“Foreign interference in U.S. fishery markets, particularly through illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, subsidized foreign fleets, forced and child labor, and dumping of contaminated seafood products, is devastating domestic industries.”

“Our domestic fisheries are under assault not only from illegal and subsidized foreign competition but also from bureaucratic red tape failing to protect American industries. The Protect American Fisheries Act takes a stand against these harmful practices and the inefficiencies in our system allowing them to persist. This legislation ensures we can cut through the red tape, defend the livelihoods of hardworking American fishermen, and strengthen our coastal economies by targeting illegal fishing, predatory pricing, and foreign market distortions,” said Mace.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

US shrimpers call for investigation of uneven enforcement of import restrictions related to turtle-excluder device use

September 13, 2024 — Two trade groups representing U.S. shrimpers have requested the U.S. State Department more evenly enforce a rule prohibiting imports from countries that have not received certification they have required their wild-catch shrimp sectors to use of turtle-excluder devices.

The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) and the Port Arthur Area Shrimpers’ Association (PAASA) said the federal government’s Section 609 program, made law in 1989, requires the U.S. State Department and NOAA Fisheries to certify foreign countries or fisheries as being in compliance with domestic requirements on the usage of turtle-excluder devices (TEDs), which allow turtles to escape from shrimp-trawler nets. The certification makes them eligible to export wild-caught shrimp to the U.S. market.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Save Our Shrimpers Act introduced to safeguard US shrimping industry

April 11, 2024 — Today, in a bipartisan effort, Representative Troy Nehls (R-TX) and co-sponsors have introduced the Save Our Shrimpers Act (SOS Act), a piece of legislation aimed at safeguarding the U.S. shrimp industry. The bill seeks to prevent U.S. taxpayer funds from supporting shrimp-related activities in foreign countries through international financial institutions.

The proposed legislation arises from concerns raised by the Southern Shrimp Alliance(SSA), which last year published a research report titled A Crisis of Our Own Making. The report sheds light on the role played by international financial institutions, including the World Bank, in the expansion of excess shrimp aquaculture capacity worldwide. The report notes that U.S. taxpayers have unwittingly contributed billions of dollars to foreign shrimp aquaculture through these institutions.

The proposed SOS Act explicitly prohibits the use of U.S. taxpayer funds by international financial institutions for any activity related to shrimp farming, shrimp processing, or shrimp exports in foreign countries. The legislation also mandates an annual report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office(GAO).

According to U.S. shrimping associations, the consequences of unchecked shrimp aquaculture projects funded by international financial institutions have been severe for U.S. shrimpers. The bill notes that the encouragement of excess shrimp production has led to a surplus in world markets, including the U.S. This oversupply has significantly depressed prices received by U.S. shrimpers for their catch. According to the bill, shrimp imports to the U.S. have lost $1.5 billion in value since 2021, which the bill notes directly affects the livelihoods of shrimpers across eight states in the Gulf.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman 

Shrimp alliance calls for U.S. ban on forced-labor imports

January 30, 2024 — The Southern Shrimp Alliance asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security this week to add eight seafood processors in China to a list of companies blocked from importing to the U.S. because of their use of forced labor.

In a Jan. 29 letter the SSA points to evidence that red shrimp caught off Argentina  is shipped to China, and processed in plants in Shandong province where members of China’s ethnic Uyghur work under forced labor conditions.

The shrimp alliance in particular cites reporting on Uyghur labor by the Outlaw Ocean Project, a nonprofit investigative journalism group founded by maritime reporter Ian Urbina.  

“The Outlaw Ocean Project recently documented that members of the Uyghur minority were forcibly moved out of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) to Shandong and coerced to work in seafood processing facilities, including shrimp,” according to a statement from the SSA.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman