"gulf coast" news and stories

Gulf seafood is still suffering from a lingering black eye. So much so, that earlier this month, 30 members of Congress sent a letter to President Obama urging him to disclose more information on the federal government's seafood safety work.

"Louisiana is suffering from a serious perception problem regarding its seafood, despite the fact that the fish we harvest is consistently being proven to be safe by several federal and state testing agencies," said Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board.

As recently as December, the seafood board's survey found that 71 percent of consumers still indicated a level of concern about the safety of consuming Gulf seafood.

In their letter to the President, congressional members write: "This lack of public confidence results not from a shortage of government data, but from an ineffectiveness in reporting this complex information to the American public."

"Seafood coming out of the Gulf of Mexico is one of the most tested food products in the world, and the results consistently prove that Gulf seafood is entirely safe to eat," Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana told Slashfood.

Politicians aren't the only ones beating that drum.

CNN is reporting that after 10 months and an estimated 200 million gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, oysters are back on New Orleans menus. What makes that news even more notable is that the local oyster harvest was down nearly 50 percent in 2010, and many Americans harbor lingering concerns over the safety of Gulf seafood, despite assurances by government officials.

You won't see much hesitation in the dining room at New Orleans-based Café Adelaide, where chef Chris Lusk was crowned the "King of Seafood" in the midst of the oil spill. The chef says his fried oysters with horseradish crust are a hot item.

"Right now, with the colder weather, Gulf oysters are amazing. They have good salinity and the quality and the size are great," he told Slashfood. He also says he feels more confident about local seafood than ever before.

"You have layers of government agencies checking on everything from the facilities to the beds, making sure the seafood is safe. There are so many eyes checking on everything, I feel extremely confident about the safety of the oysters we're getting," he said.

Nearly eight months after the Deepwater Horizon rig blew out into the Gulf, the U.S. has filed suit with BP and other companies over the spill "in its effort to get billions of dollars for untold economic and environmental damage," reported the New York Times late yesterday. "Under the Clean Water Act alone, BP faces fines of up to $1,100 for each barrel of oil spilled."

And we hear that Gulf fishermen are up to new tricks themselves -- with a new oyster-harvesting method that may result in better (healthier) oysters.

Announced yesterday, by the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board (the organization behind Friends of the Fishermen, which had top chefs like Tom Colicchio on board), this new initiative "promises to increase production and open up entrepreneurial opportunities for oystermen."

Normally oysters are grown on reefs attached to the ocean floor, but Gulf oyster farmers are now looking into a not-so-new but new-to-the-Gulf, off-bottom approach where oysters are suspended on water columns and easily pulled to the surface in hunks. Oysters can then grow "in areas where a traditional bottom harvest is impossible" like over sand, notes the Board. It also "protects oysters from predators, provides a means to reduce fouling, increases oyster growth rates and allows for pruning, which results in oysters with fatter meat."

On Sunday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) closed fishing in federal waters affected by the massive oil spill in the Gulf, which continues to drift towards Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

This area of the Gulf is prized for its shrimp, oyster and blue-crab fisheries, currently at their peak spawning period. While approximately 80 percent of the seafood consumed in the U.S. is imported -- meaning most seafood lover's dinner plates will not be directly impacted by the spill -- the area's fishery is significant. In 2008, more than 1 billion pounds of finfish and shellfish were harvested from the Gulf region. Experts predict that Louisiana's fishing industry alone could face a $2.5 billion loss.

"This is iconic American seafood," says Gavin Gibbons, spokesman for the National Fisheries Institute. "When you get past looking at the volume of seafood affected, you start looking at the lives impacted, and it's a tough row to hoe for those fishermen."