May 9, 2014 — Despite some behind-the-scenes wrangling for ownership of the event, The Great American Seafood Cook-off is still on for 1-3 August, with the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board (LSPMB) remaining the popular event's sponsor.
Every year, NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) awards funding to an organization to put on the event. For the past 10 years, the funds have been awarded to the LSPMB. However, after the LSPMB switched from Louisiana’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to the state’s Department of Tourism last year, the funds were not awarded to the LSPMB.
Instead, NOAA awarded funds to the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission in late March. The GSMFC, in turn, said it would partner with the Gulf Seafood Institute, the Louisiana Restaurant Association, the Gulf and South Atlantic Fisheries Foundation, and the GSAFF’s marketing arm, the Gulf Seafood Marketing Coalition, to hold the event.