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CHARLESTON, S.C. – In a bid to bolster the local shrimp industry, the Southern Shrimp Alliance, in collaboration with the South Carolina Shrimpers Association, is urging state legislators to take a cue from Georgia by proposing a bill designed to safeguard the industry.
For over a year, this federal advocacy group, which represents the commercial shrimping interests from North Carolina to Texas, has engaged seed consultants to perform thorough testing on shrimp served at restaurants in Charleston and Myrtle Beach. In their effort, they have randomly selected and tested shrimp from 44 restaurants across these popular South Carolina destinations.
Blake Price, the Director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance, emphasized the initiative’s primary goal: “It’s all about raising awareness among both the public and consumers. We hope this leads to the introduction of state labeling laws, ensuring that people know exactly what they are consuming.”
Price pointed out that their prior investigations have uncovered a troubling trend among coastal eateries. Many of these restaurants, he explained, mislead diners by marketing their shrimp dishes as locally sourced and wild-caught, while in reality, they are serving imported, farm-raised shrimp.
“What we have found prior to contracting seed is that restaurants are often couching their shrimp dishes as local wild caught when in fact they are foreign farm raised shrimp products,” he said.
The seed consultants live tested several shrimps from 44 new randomly selected Charleston restaurants on Thursday in Mt. Pleasant. They are hoping to have results in the next week.
“We are greatly trying to increase awareness to that problem and encourage restaurants to do the right thing and support us,” said Price.
The group, along with the South Carolina Shrimpers Association, is not only looking for restaurants to do the right thing now, but they are also looking for solid enforcement on those restaurants in the future. They want the state to create a bill.
If South Carolina were to join forces and pass a law, it would force restaurants in the state to prove whether they’re serving local or imported shrimp before they hit the plate.
Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama already have similar bills. Georgia would make the fifth state to join. The Southern Shrimp Alliance is pushing for eight states in total, with North Carolina, Florida and South Carolina remaining.
Vice President of the South Carolina Shrimpers Association Bryan Jones said he’s currently in conversations with South Carolina officials about hopefully drafting a bill this session.
“We are currently having conversations. There’s not a bill yet filed, but we certainly hope to have one very soon. And again, I think that this latest legislative session, it’s important to have something,” he said. “I think the people have overwhelmingly spoken out loud. As we see the support and the feedback from all the stories about shrimp, the more we bring to light the issues facing industry and the consumers health.”
Health is another big topic within the local versus imported shrimp controversy.
“When we look at the shrimp boats like the one behind me (pointing to shrimp boats on Shem Creek), when it goes out and catches shrimp right in our fresh coastal, pristine waters that we love and know so well, it literally is caught there comes back, is put on ice and goes straight to the market,” said Jones. “Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for foreign aquaculture where there’s many suspect practices.”
In the last 20 years, foreign farm shrimp products have flooded U.S. markets, and they’re often tainted with chemicals or antibiotics that have been banned in this country since the 1950s, according to the Southern Shrimp Alliance.
Those chemicals and contaminants pose “an immediate food safety concern,” according to Price. They also have had a long term and immediate effect of undercutting U.S. industry prices at the docks.
“It’s creating a vastly unfair playing field for our hardworking U.S. American shrimpers,” Price said. “It’s prominent not just along the coastal states that produce shrimp, but inland in those states and throughout this country.”
What Price said he wants to really emphasize is that there are a lot of restaurants doing the right thing and supporting the U.S. shrimping industry.
“There is a model to where you can be profitable and still do the right thing by serving the best quality ingredients,” said Price. “We’re not trying to have a gotcha moment with this or point out folks that are at restaurants that are serving imports. We just want we want their labels to be honest and fair to the American public and most importantly, help support our U.S. commercial shrimp fishermen and give them the best price that they deserve.”
Local hospitality association pushes ahead of state laws
Ahead of any possible state legislation, the Beaufort Area Hospitality Association (BAHA) is set to launch their own restaurant transparency and seed testing program in roughly six weeks.
“At this stage, we have only gauged interest and participation from our partners and have not yet begun the formal testing process,” said President and CEO of BAHA Ashlee Hauk. “Based on our current outreach, the majority of local, non-chain restaurants we work with are serving wild-caught, American domestic shrimp, meaning shrimp harvested from U.S. coastal waters.”
They have identified at least 13 partners serving local shrimp caught in and around Beaufort waters. Hauk said there may be additional participants as they continue confirming details.
“Many of our partners are intentionally choosing to avoid imported products in order to offer a safer, higher-quality option while supporting American fishermen and the broader domestic seafood industry,” Hauk said.
BAHA expects to have more comprehensive data and statistics available later this summer once testing begins with USCB Marine Sciences.
The Southern Shrimp Alliance said they are in full support of the program and hope to see other coastal communities adopt similar programs.