In Search of Real Gulf Seafood

In an age of imitation, what value will we place on authenticity?

by

Last fall, the headlines sent shockwaves through the Louisiana seafood community: “Mostly foreign shrimp at Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival.”

Morgan City’s Labor Day weekend seafood extravaganza had just celebrated its eighty-ninth year as a mainstay on the Louisiana food festival circuit. During the 2024 event, a consulting group had conducted genetic testing on the shrimp being sold onsite and found, remarkably, only one in five vendors was selling a product actually sourced from the Gulf. In revealing their findings to local media, the group accused other sampled vendors of peddling imported, farm-raised shrimp to an unsuspecting public under the guise of serving a local product—at an event whose very purpose is to support and celebrate the local shrimping community. 

“Think you love Gulf shrimp? It’s possible you’ve never even tasted it,” read the provocative opening to a press release from SEAD Consulting, the independent company that has since begun an onslaught of shrimp genetic testing along the Gulf Coast to uncover fraudulent labeling. In a region where food authenticity is not only a brand, but also a crucial characteristic of a cultural identity increasingly threatened by the slow creep of assimilation, vanishing local industries, and a dissolving coastline, the questions surrounding the source and labeling of seafood have never been more urgent or politically charged.  

“I grew up watching fishing communities die,” said David Williams, a commercial fisheries scientist and the founder of SEAD Consulting, based in Houston, Texas. “I could see that happening all along the Gulf Coast, along the East Coast, in the shrimping industries and other industries, because people are unaware of the importance of having a thriving coast with infrastructure.” 

"I don't think that the public has a problem with restaurants serving imported seafood. I think the public has a problem with restaurants serving imported seafood and calling it Gulf seafood." 

—Chef Jeremy Conner

While the issue of domestic versus imported seafood is not a new phenomenon in Louisiana, the matter has become more urgent as shrimpers and other fishermen on the Gulf Coast face increasing and varied setbacks that are slowly but surely decimating the industry, from their catches netting bottom-of-the-barrel prices and rising costs for regular vessel maintenance, to punishing weather events and worker shortages. At restaurants, meanwhile, managers and owners grapple with difficult decisions to defray overhead expenses as inflation impacts food and labor costs. It’s no secret that foreign seafood is significantly cheaper than the local product—an issue that has led to its ubiquity in our grocery stores and restaurants, ultimately leaving fishermen catching wild shrimp in the Gulf in a financial bind, unable to afford the boats and equipment that ensure their livelihoods. 

What’s more, apart from the economic toll to domestic fishermen, imported seafood also carries a higher risk of introducing harmful contaminants that can impact human health. For instance, imported shrimp from India, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Bangladesh, and Ecuador purchased in Baton Rouge stores were found to contain “veterinary drug residue,” according to a 2020 study from researchers with the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center.

In Louisiana, where “seafood is king,” fresh and local fare additionally bears the mantle of culture, heritage, and history. More and more, the consumer is caught between the boat and table. 

“I don't think that the public has a problem with restaurants serving imported seafood,” said Jeremy Conner, a Lafayette-based restaurant consultant and former executive chef of Spoonbill Watering Hole & Restaurant. “I think the public has a problem with restaurants serving imported seafood and calling it Gulf seafood.”

The Fraud Next Door   

After SEAD published its bombshell results last September, a heated discussion began to swirl in legislative and media circles about the strength of Louisiana’s seafood labeling laws, and whether or not they had enough teeth to protect a fishing industry under attack. 

With haste, Shrimp & Petroleum Festival organizers released a statement in October emphasizing that in 2025, vendors would comply with a new state law set to go into effect before the ninetieth annual festival, which would require certain labeling rules; but State Rep. Jessica Domangue, a Republican lawmaker based in Houma who was raised in a family of commercial shrimpers, called out organizers in an open letter, referring to the statement as “misleading”; she pointed out that current law already requires certain disclosures for imported seafood. “It is possible the Festival has actually allowed its restaurant vendors to openly violate Louisiana law for the past four years,” she suggested. 

“Imported shrimp has no place at the Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival,” she added. 

It’s true that the 2019 Louisiana labeling law Domangue refers to had little means to enforce compliance, even in the form of fines, despite the Louisiana Department of Health issuing more than 2,600 reported violations as of 2023. Since the Shrimp & Petroleum fiasco, a new act took effect in January containing provisions for the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry and the Louisiana Department of Health to issue heavier fines to deter seafood fraudsters.  

“You know, food is memory. You eat these shrimp, you eat these crawfish—it kind of reminds you of either crawfish boils or Sunday gatherings, Mardi Gras feasts. They're in all of our staples; gumbo, barbecue shrimp, shrimp and grits. And each one of these dishes tells a story of New Orleans cuisine. It's just very important for us to uphold that and carry on that tradition.” —Corey Sharp

Amid the ongoing political fallout, SEAD Consulting has continued a steady march of genetic testing across an eight-state trek from the Gulf South to the East Coast, hired in part by the Southern Shrimp Alliance and the Louisiana Shrimp Task Force. To conduct these tests, SEAD is utilizing a methodology developed in tandem with Florida State University, called the Rapid ID Genetics High-Accuracy Test (RIGHTTest), which is able to detect seafood species. In recent months, the company has released increasingly damning reports revealing the fraud rates of shrimp labeling in cities throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and beyond. Williams estimates the company has tested more than five hundred restaurants. “The more you assume that you’re definitely eating Gulf shrimp,” he said. “The less likely you are.” 

What’s more, the fraudulent menu listings have financial consequences for restaurant-goers. According to Williams, the average price of an imported shrimp dish is about $10, while the average price for a Gulf shrimp dish is $14. The average price of a shrimp dish that is imported, but falsely labeled as Gulf shrimp? Also $14.

“You can see every time someone doesn’t tell the truth about what a product is, they’re charging an extra $4 per plate,” Williams said. “All we want is the consumer to be able to make a fair and reasonable choice.”

 According to SEAD’s reports, in Baton Rouge, nearly 30% of seafood dishes sampled at twenty-four restaurants were misrepresented, advertising imported shrimp as from the Gulf; the company found 33% of Lafayette restaurants were selling foreign shrimp, with a fraction of those misrepresenting their offerings as local; and in Shreveport, the company uncovered a staggering 71% of restaurants serving imported shrimp, with more than half incorrectly labeling the dishes. 

Beyond Louisiana, the findings aren’t better. In Biloxi, Gulf Shores, and surrounding areas in Mississippi, SEAD Consulting found 39% of “Gulf White Shrimp” and 92% of “Royal Red Shrimp” served at tested restaurants were not local. Further afield, in places like Tampa-St. Petersburg in Florida, SEAD uncovered a shrimp fraud rate of 96%—despite the proximity of genuine ocean vistas.  

More favorable findings were reported in New Orleans, with a relatively low 13% fraud rate among twenty-four randomly selected seafood restaurants, and Lake Charles, which has a 21% inauthenticity rate. 

Generally, Williams’s team has found that the fewer seafood labeling rules and regulations a state has, the lower the shrimp authenticity rate. Enforcement and regulations work, he argues, and could solve many of the demand issues facing the domestic shrimp industry.  

“The average authenticity rate along the Gulf Coast is 70% inauthentic,” Williams said. “If you could drop that down to 30% along the Gulf Coast states and East Coast states, that would inject over a billion dollars into our industry.”

Restaurants “Doing the Right Thing” 

Each time SEAD releases its results on shrimp fraud rates in different cities, the company also makes a point to showcase the restaurants tested that stayed true to the customer by labeling their seafood accurately. Common among many of these “restaurants doing the right thing” is a bold throughline of loyalty—to the customer, to the fishing industry as a whole and, perhaps most significantly, to themselves. 

In New Orleans, where the shrimp fraud rate is the lowest among any of the cities SEAD tested across various states, Chef Corey Sharp of the Creole-inspired Luke believes “it's important for us to show off the product that we have here and not utilize anything from anywhere else.” His perspective is that Louisiana is home to one of the “greatest fisheries in this country,” with a readily available product that can’t be beat for flavor or freshness; as a chef, he feels a responsibility to support those fisheries for future generations. By sustaining and preserving the seafood tradition of New Orleans through practices like ethical harvesting, the restaurant also supports the fishing industry and the waterways that provide a source of community survival.

[Read this: "Giving Fish 'The Beef Treatment—At New Orleans's GW Fins, Chef Michael Nelson has mastered the art of fish butchery & dry aging"] 

“Our Gulf seafood has kind of been the heartbeat of what we're trying to do here. It’s fresh, local,” he said. “Especially here at Luke, with how much seafood we serve, it is a big part of our identity—being honest with our guests.” 

“You know, food is memory,” Sharp went on. “You eat these shrimp, you eat these crawfish—it kind of reminds you of either crawfish boils or Sunday gatherings, Mardi Gras feasts. They're in all of our staples; gumbo, barbecue shrimp, shrimp and grits. And each one of these dishes tells a story of New Orleans cuisine. It's just very important for us to uphold that and carry on that tradition.”

For Tyler Benoit, general manager of the legendary Darrell’s Poboys in Lake Charles, using Gulf shrimp in the restaurant’s famous poboys is what his grandparents—the forty-year-old institution’s founders—would have wanted. And choosing local providers for their shrimp sandwiches comes down to uplifting Louisiana fishermen who are “basically our families,” he said.  

“[My grandparents] wanted everything as authentic as possible,” Benoit said. “‘It's got to be from the Gulf.’ That's what [my grandpa would] always tell us. You know, him and my grandma were pretty stern on that.” 

At Spoonbill in Lafayette, Conner sought to tell the story of the region through the seafood he served—even serving bycatch, or so-called “trash” fish, to minimize waste and elevate what’s local and fresh. 

“We have this hierarchy, and at the very top is Louisiana landed fish,” Conner said. “Like, I want this fish to come off a boat on the coast of Louisiana somewhere. And then, if we can't get that, then it's got to be Gulf. And then if we can't get that, it's got to be United States. And if we can't get that, we'll serve beef.” 

Conner believes the Shrimp & Petroleum Festival scandal resonated so widely because the public is interested in supporting local fishermen and connecting with Louisiana foodways. At Spoonbill, the restaurant allows patrons to prove their love of local seafood by paying a little extra for the real deal.  

“It’s like this two-way promise,” Conner said. “We ask them to trust us to not serve imported seafood and call it domestic seafood, call it Louisiana or Gulf seafood. And we trust them to be interested in the difference, and to make the choice to spend the extra couple of dollars.” 

Chef Tyler Langley, who recently took over as Spoonbill’s executive chef, has worked to overhaul the restaurant’s menu and showcase more Gulf seafood in the tradition Conner brought to the kitchen—even if it costs a bit more. And back of house, there is too much constant churn and chaos to pay attention to media reports about seafood testing and authenticity. The mission to put out a product people can trust was already there; the goal is to stay true to that promise.

“Kind of just business as usual, I think,” Langley said. “Spoonbill is going to keep making the menu a reflection of the Gulf.”

“They’re tying up their boats.”

Rodney Olander wears many hats. He serves as the chairman of the Louisiana Shrimp Task Force and a councilman in St. Mary Parish, for starters. But his longest-held title remains “fisherman,” a job he has worked for more than forty-five years.

On a recent day at the end of May, nearly one month into Gulf shrimp season, Olander was home—not on the water, not in his boat. This year, the shrimp are in short supply—“the catch is off tremendous,” he said. “I’ve been parked the last couple of days because it just don’t make any sense for me to go.” That, and his boat needs a repair. 

“The last thing you want to have this year is any kind of breakdown, because there wasn’t any money made this year, and the little bit I did make? Now it has to go to cover this breakdown,” Olander said. “It’s not good. That’s why a lot of fishermen are bailing out—because there’s just no money in it.” 

Nevertheless, Olander considers himself “one of the lucky few”; he worked for years to pay off his equipment and motors. He’s spent decades in the business and knows how to take his losses in stride. But if you’re new to the industry and have a boat note, times are tough. 

“We’re in a spiral going downhill. We have a lot of fishermen—they’re tying up their boats. The problem is, we don’t have another generation behind us to keep this industry going.” —Rodney Olander

“A lot of guys are like, ‘You know, I can’t afford this.’ So they go out and get a job, and a lot of them keep their boats,” he said. “But it’s just tied up in back of their house, or at the docks.” 

The problems facing commercial fishermen are varied, multifaceted; the competition with foreign imports has left them cash-strapped, trying to pay off their boats and ongoing maintenance, while contending with natural disasters that wreck their equipment, or regulatory challenges that restrict their catch. 

“I know that those guys across industries, not just shrimp, but across industries, are under incredible price pressure from imported seafood,” said Conner. “It's nearly impossible for them to make a living. One bad weather event or one bad season, and the debt on their equipment outweighs their mortgage payments, you know?” He went on, “There are other factors—not least among them what is in the water coming down the Mississippi River, and climate change, and all those kinds of things.” 

And everything, it seems, costs more—even as the money made on each catch seems to be in free fall. In the last five years alone, the price has doubled for everything Olander buys for his boat.

“We’re in a spiral going downhill. We have a lot of fishermen—they’re tying up their boats,” Olander said. “The problem is, we don’t have another generation behind us to keep this industry going.”

This season, Olander said the price for Gulf shrimp has been low, much like in previous years.“We’re seeing rock bottom prices, without a doubt. I’ve been here long enough. It’s never been this bad. The problem is, you, the consumer, are not seeing it. When you go to a restaurant, you’re not seeing a cheap shrimp platter. When you go to the grocery store, you’re not seeing a cheap product,” he said. “After it leaves our boat, to what the consumer has to pay, there’s a lot of profit being made along the chain—and we’re not getting it.” 

Williams pointed out that fishermen are the crux of the industry, and their experiences of fair treatment can make or break the supply chain: “If fishermen don’t go out fishing, there is no industry.” 

“I would love for the wild caught American shrimp to sell at a similar premium to, like certified Angus Beef against other beef products,” he said. “ It needs to be sold for a lot more money, so the percentage share that everybody gets is bigger and better.”

[Read this: "If You Give a Man a Fish . . .—Louisiana culinary experts share surprisingly simple ways to use local, catchable seafood"] 

Conner argues that, given the hurdles fishermen are currently confronting, the least the restaurant industry can do is be honest about what they are serving. Ultimately, he doesn’t feel all restaurant operators are acting maliciously when mislabeling seafood. Some are just desperately scrambling to make ends meet, alongside a mistaken and pervasive belief that everyone in the industry is also mislabeling. He imagines a scenario in which seafood stocks run low and an import must be used last-minute, with little time allotted to reprint a menu. Although he can speculate on conditions that lead operators to make mistakes without intentionally deceiving the consumer, he emphasizes that there remains a human cost.   

For his part, speaking independently as a fisherman, Olander bemoaned how he and his fellows feel they are taking the worst blows at the bottom of the ladder—one they are trying to hold steady amid hurricane-force headwinds. 

“Every time there’s a cut, we take the cut,” he said. “It’s to the point where—we can’t cut anymore. And that’s what’s happened. Fishermen are bailing out. We’re losing the industry, and to be honest, I don’t know how much longer it can go.”

It's these communities and their challenges that are often top of mind when local restaurants choose Gulf shrimp over cheaper imports.

“We're supporting local fishermen,” Sharp said. “We're not supporting these big commercial businesses that are doing this elsewhere. We want to help that guy pay off his boat. We want to, you know, take care of their families, too.”

Benoit, of Darrell’s, explained that it’s a matter of family—of helping out the shrimper or fisherman down the street, because that’s just the right thing to do.  

“We know a lot of people that, like, just locally, that's all they do. You know, [it's] their livelihood,” he said. “And why would I get some shrimp from somewhere else when I can help my neighbor?”

Something Real

In his official capacity heading up the Louisiana Shrimp Task Force, Olander has a sense of what needs to be done on a macro level to turn the tide. Labeling laws, like the one in Louisiana that went into effect in January, are a start. The task force also works on the federal level, seeking limits on foreign shrimp and urging more testing at ports. If tariffs are charged for shrimp, Olander argues that money should be injected directly back into the shrimping industry, rather than funneled into the general fund.

“It don’t need to be done today or tomorrow—it should have been done years ago,” he said. “Once you lose an industry, it’s tough to get it back.” 

Last year, Olander also drafted and passed a resolution in his role as a St. Mary Parish Councilman, asking Shrimp & Petroleum Festival organizers to commit to exclusively using Gulf Coast shrimp at the upcoming event over Labor Day weekend in 2025, when the festival will celebrate ninety years. According to Olander, festival organizers have agreed to request that vendors only serve local shrimp. 

In recent months, SEAD has seen some more promising results, despite the clear indication of fraud across so many areas. In April, for instance, the company announced that only one out of nineteen vendors tested at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival sold imported shrimp—a significant win for the city’s food scene. 

There have also been efforts to bolster venues for local seafood, such as last October’s inaugural Shrimp Festival & Shrimp Aid in New Orleans, which earned a 100% authenticity rating after SEAD testing. When event organizers and restaurants commit not only to telling the truth in their labeling, but also using the local product because it is local, Williams believes people can sense the difference—and that difference is extraordinary: “You know the whole thing about authenticity? It shows through the entire business, or community.” 

Learn more about Louisiana's shrimping industry and seafood fraud at shrimpalliance.com.