One of the biggest attractions to Destin, Florida is the fresh Gulf seafood.  Just thinking about it makes my mouth water.  With names like Grouper Almandine, Snapper Destin, Bacon Wrapped Scallops, and Tuna Poke’ your mouth should be watering as well.  We have hundreds of restaurants along Florida’s Gulf Coast that specialize in fresh seafood.  In this blog I will clue you in on one of the growing problems the commercial fisherman are having to deal with and how to help them out.

90% fish sold in Florida will be imported.  Not only is this bad for our fisherman but the fish coming in is often mislabeled, frozen, and sold as local and fresh.  Seafood fraud is one of the biggest challenges facing the Gulf Coast’s commercial fisherman.  It creates a market for illegal fishing, it makes it hard to make eco-friendly choices, it is unhealthy, and it misleads all of us as to the availability of a species.

A survey done by Oceana showed 1/3 of the fish sold in restaurants in the United States were mislabeled.  White tuna is being subbed for escolar, ocean perch for snapper,  the list goes on and on.  This takes away the ability for local fisherman to deliver their catch.  They cannot compete with the prices.  White river fish from somewhere overseas will sell for less than $4.00 a pound. Snapper is closer to $8.00.

The FDA is working on labeling restrictions and a bill is in congress called the SAFE Seafood act and will help to prosecute illegal fishing and mislabeling.  Better than letting the government take care of this problem we can do something about it at the consumer level by eating seafood at places that can trace their catch bait to plate.  Click on the harbor Dock’s website for names of over 50 restaurants that can trace their fish bait to plate.   www.harbordocks.com

Our fisherman are regulated enough.  Lets make sure the fish we are eating and paying for are coming from our market.  Mislabeled fish come from overfished areas that have no fda standards.  Ocean perch tastes just like snapper the only difference is the cost.  I want to know I am eating what I pay for.  Look to www.oceana.org for information on how to help.