Overview
- SeaD Consulting re-tested 22 previously sampled Tampa Bay restaurants this month and verified authentic wild-caught Gulf shrimp at only three.
- Salt Shack on the Bay passed both rounds of testing, 4th Street Shrimp Store and one unnamed restaurant switched to American wild-caught shrimp, and Stillwater Tavern’s earlier pass was not re-tested.
- Twelve of the 22 restaurants explicitly marketed Gulf or domestic shrimp while serving imported farm-raised species, and seven more implied local origin through branding.
- SeaD, contracted by the Southern Shrimp Alliance, is continuing statewide testing and urging legislation modeled on Alabama’s menu rules for country of origin and farmed versus wild labeling.
- Separate SeaD tests in Monroe and Ruston, Louisiana, found zero compliance with that state’s labeling law, with over half of dishes containing imported farm-raised shrimp and no required signage posted.