Texas Shrimpers Boiling Mad – Festival Sold Foreign Shrimp

I would imagine the tempers on some of the shrimp boats that sail in and out of Rockport, Aransas Pass, Corpus Christi, Beaumont, and other ports along the Texas Gulf Coast are more than a bit short this morning.

This after hearing the news that another Gulf Coast seafood festival that claims to support the men and women who make their living out of the Gulf of Mexico has been busted for selling products that were not what they were advertised to be.

Earlier this year we told the you story of what happened at the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival in Morgan City. That's a big seafood festival in Louisiana.  A seafood consultant surveyed five different vendors at that festival. Each of the vendors allegedly had documentation that the products they sold were of local origin. The DNA testing revealed that in four of the five shops the product being sold was falsely advertised.

That same consulting group, SeaD Consulting recently sampled some of the items that were being sold at the National Shrimp Festival in Gulf Shores Alabama. Those doing the testing surveyed five different vendors and got the same results as what they discovered in Morgan City, four of the five vendors were not selling the product that was advertised.

The only shining example of truth and decency was Rouses Market. This is not a surprise at all. The folks at Rouses, who we have worked with very closely in the past, are adamant about quality control and purchasing from local sources whenever possible.

Meanwhile, the folks at SeaD Consulting have gone on record as saying they plan to visit restaurants across Louisiana and the Gulf South just to verify that what is being advertised is what is being sold. Louisiana has very strict laws regarding country of origin labeling when it comes to seafood. So does Texas. And we are very protective of our seafood and fishing industry in the Lone Star State.

Those laws are in place to protect our fishing families from those who would besmirch the good name of Texas or Gulf Seafood by selling an inferior product that was sourced from outside our waters.

Our advice to you is always ask when you buy seafood if it comes from Texas or the coastal waters of the Gulf of Mexico. If it doesn't you should expect the price to be lower and the quality even lower than the price. Don't buy crap. Buy Texas wild-caught and Gulf Seafood, our way of life depends on it.

There has been no word from the National Shrimp Festival in Gulf Shores about what actions, if any, will be taken against those vendors who violated Alabama state law and the trust of consumers across the Gulf South.