December 6, 2014 — President Barack Obama warned this year that the black market for fish "threatens our oceans and undermines our economy and often supports dangerous criminals." He directed several federal agencies, including NOAA, to produce a plan to crack down on seafood fraud and black-market fishing; the recommendations are due this month.
Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland and a cadre of legislators from Virginia also have highlighted the problem, asking the administration to probe the fraudulent mislabeling of seafood as Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic blue crab meat. "Some processors are importing foreign crabmeat, repacking it at a domestic facility, and then labeling it as a product of the United States," they said in a letter to the president in July. Such deceptive labeling, they added, "misleads consumers and threatens the livelihood of the watermen in our states."
There's a lot at stake. Restaurant diners who order a piece of white tuna sushi might be served a much less expensive fish such as escolar. Mislabeling also raises serious health concerns for people with allergies who could be ingesting an unknown fish, or for pregnant women avoiding mercury in certain fish products. Illegal seafood can also hurt U.S. fishers by putting them at a competitive disadvantage — including Maryland crabbing companies whose product and price can be undercut by mislabeled foreign crab.
"The level of fraud is insane," said Spike Gjerde, the chef of Baltimore's Woodberry Kitchen. That's one reason he deals directly with watermen in the Chesapeake Bay area and refuses any imported seafood.
"I find it difficult to know anything about domestic seafood," he said. "And almost impossible for something flown in from 5,000 miles away."
Despite calls in Washington for a crackdown — to protect consumers as well as law-abiding American companies and fishers — NOAA has been slowly whittling down the team of agents that handles complex investigations.
Read the full story at the Baltimore Sun