Exclusive: Despite Oil Spill, Gulf Seafood Safe and Plentiful

(June 10) -- Constantly updating headlines, endless government revelations, snarky political attacks and airwaves saturated with British Petroleum's self-serving mea culpas have left many with the belief that a big hunk of America's prime spawning ground for seafood is shut down.

Indeed, floating islands of reddish-brown oil and rainbow sheens cover a third of the massive Gulf of Mexico. Nevertheless, shrimp and crab are abundant and safe to eat and half the sprawling oyster beds are open for harvesting. Everything costs more, but less-expensive foreign shellfish -- to which some restaurant suppliers and fishmongers are considering switching -- could be far more hazardous to your health.

And, across the country, diners are still lining up, and being served most of their favorite Gulf seafood.

Even with menacing skies and tornado warnings in the area on Sunday, Cantler's Riverside Inn in Annapolis, Md., served almost 2,500 steamed Louisiana Blue Crabs, drenched in Maryland's official spice, Old Bay.

About 2,800 miles west, in Seattle, there was a wait to get into Toulouse Petit, the city's hottest Cajun restaurant. Plates of Louisiana Blue Crab over fried green tomatoes, Creole shrimp linguine and gumbo and a dozen other dishes with the best the Gulf has to offer were being wolfed down.

About 60 miles, as the crow flies, from the oily water of the Gulf, in Thibodaux, La., Earl Melancon gobbled down a Louisiana shrimp Po' Boy. The professor of Marine Biology said he's still cooking and serving local seafood to his children and grandchildren. That would be oysters and shrimp cooked enough different ways to fill a good cookbook.

The federal government added to the ominous picture when last week Commerce Secretary Gary Locke loudly declared a "fisheries disaster" in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, promising $20 million in aid to commercial fishers and their communities.

All the while, there's non-stop chatter from some newspaper and television reporters, bloggers and others who tell the world that the Gulf delicacies are oil-covered, unfit to eat and nothing is being sold.

"All of us involved in supplying Gulf seafood are getting our asses kicked because some people don't believe that we're still in business down here," said Robbie Walker, owner of the Louisiana Seafood Exchange. "This means everyone's getting hammered, from the shrimpers, crabbers, oystermen, the truck drivers, the processors and those who sell it.

"We need consumers to understand and believe that we're delivering a safe, quality product, because we are."

Certainly There Are Problems

No one, including Walker, denies that the rust-red-colored mixture of hydrocarbons and chemical dispersants is flowing onto beaches, into estuaries and collecting on and beneath Gulf waters.

Oil-covered sea birds gasping for air rip at the heart of the most hardened cynic. And many of the 17,000 or so commercial fishers -- the seventh or eighth generations of men and women who ply the Gulf waters for a living -- are hurting.

There was fear that Gulf fin fish, like red snapper, amberjack, swordfish and grouper, were getting scarce because parts of their deepwater playgrounds are coated with oil. Not so, Gavin Gibbons of the National Fisheries Institute told AOL News on Wednesday. These popular fish are being caught at about 60 percent to 70 percent of normal, but at adequate numbers to supply the market, he said.

But the danger to some of these fish may be increasing. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-funded researchers from the University of South Florida confirmed finding huge plumes of oil from the BP well drifting far below the surface of the Gulf, stretching as far as 50 miles from the undersea geyser of crude.

Still, about 70 percent of "our coastline is open and oil-free," said Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board.

And Walker, who supplies shrimp, crab and oysters to more than 500 customers, said he hasn't been out of product since BP's Deepwater Horizon blew up, burned and sank in late April.

"Everyone is just working a lot harder, avoiding areas now closed by the feds or the state guys, and finding clean, open, oil-free water to pull their catch," he said.

Crab and shrimp cost more, but everyone's oyster prices have soared. Shucked oysters that were sold for $27 to $39 a gallon and now bringing $45 to $50 or more.

"Oysters can't move out of the way of the oil," Walker said.

Who Says It's Safe?

Everybody is testing marine life, but it's difficult to pin down who's testing what and what they found. The results are especially elusive, but crucial when it comes to the analysis of the seafood that's going to market.

"We know it's safe," the marketing board's Smith said. "We've got them all pulling samples. NOAA, the Food and Drug Administration, experts at Louisiana State University and guys at the state agencies."

NOAA is completing its two-phase analysis -- sensory and chemical -- of 640 sample of fish and shrimp collected in deep water on June 2, agency spokesman Scott Smullen said.

Chemical analysis of the samples is being done in NOAA's lab in Seattle, and in Pascagoula, Miss., inspectors are using their noses to detect chemicals that are not normal to fish odors, oil and dispersants being prime examples.

"It's effective," Smullen said.

In fact, about 60 inspectors are being trained to sniff out oil-tainted fish. NOAA says they will be sent to monitor incoming shrimp and crab boats at docks throughout the Gulf.

No one in Louisiana state government could say what testing, if any, FDA is up to and it's hard to get a human in the agency to explain what it's doing to keep oil-tainted seafood out of stores.

"There is no reason to believe that any contaminated product has made its way to the market," an FDA website reported.

Tuesday, Randy Pausina, Louisiana's assistant secretary for fisheries, told AOL News that 7,974 samples of market-bound crab, shrimp, oysters and fin fish were tested as recently as Monday. Marine Fisheries Division scientists reported that none had detectable levels of hydrocarbons.

"I told you our seafood is clean and safe," Smith said.

Tracking the Troubled Waters

Meanwhile, NOAA continues to release detailed fishing ground closure warnings with maps, GPS locations and all the specifics needed to plot the location and movement of the oil.

The size and location of the areas closed to fishing is as fluid as the moving oil and based on actual observations and the anticipated trajectory of the spill. Everyone has to be on their toes because the off-limits area can change daily, sometimes every few hours.

For example, on June 2, NOAA closed 88,522 square miles of the Gulf to fishing -- that's about a third of the federal waters. But 48 hours later, it dropped the restricted area by almost 12 percent to 78,120 square miles.

Some oyster beds that were closed early in the spill are now deemed out of danger.

To many Gulf residents, the fishing area closure maps are as vital and predictive as are hurricane tracking charts.

Part of the supply problem is that there are fewer fishers working their nets and traps now.

Many hundreds of people who earned their living pulling seafood from the Gulf are now trying to make ends meet by laying miles of orange oil-catching boom from their shrimp and oyster boats.

"The ones that are fishing are just having to go further," Walker said. He and most of the other wholesalers and distributors that AOL News questioned said that even before the spill their suppliers would harvest from all along the Gulf Coast, from Texas to the Florida panhandle.

It's Up to Consumers

The Gulf seafood industry is doing all it can to retain the confidence of consumers. Ads are scheduled to appear on television and in major newspapers touting the safety and availability of the area's seafood.

"Consumers need to know that Louisiana still has significantly large areas along our coast that are still open to harvest because the oil is not in those habitats," says Melancon, the shellfish biologist and professor from Nicholls State University.

Even some environmental activists say the Gulf seafood is safe.

"Right now, everything we've seen being sold appears oil-free and of good quality. Certainly it's much safer than the imported seafood that some food chains and restaurants may switch to," said Marianne Cufone, a lawyer and director of the fish program for Food & Water Watch.

It is the rush to imports that Melancon also fears when discussing the long-term implications of the spill on the shellfish industry

"This could very well open the door for more foreign shrimp and crab imports because of the deterioration in consumer confidence," the professor said.

What Are Restaurants Doing?

It appears that the Gulf shellfish still has the confidence of many chefs and restaurant operators.

Bruce Whalen, manager of Cantler's, one of the East Coast's favorite crab joints, is still selling huge platters of Louisiana Blue Crabs and Gulf shrimp, even though the restaurant is just a quarter of a mile from the Chesapeake Bay. He said he gets about 60 percent of the popular crustaceans from the Gulf because they're larger than what can usually be harvested in the Bay off Maryland and Virginia.

"I can get all I need from the Gulf and the quality is as good as it's always been," Whalen told AOL News.

"A lot of places in Maryland are selling imported crab meat and shrimp, but always have because the prices of the foreign shellfish are always lower. But they're almost flavorless by comparison," he added.

In Seattle, I couldn't get any of the bosses to talk at Toulouse but a server said some customers asked if the Gulf crab and shrimp was safe. "I tell them we wouldn't serve it if wasn't and they say 'Bring it on.'"

A bit more than a third of all U.S. seafood comes from the Gulf, and the National Restaurant Associations said the availability of Gulf seafood is relatively normal nationwide for this time of year.

"We haven't heard of any mass movement toward switching seafood sources or taking it off the menu," said Annika Stensson, director of media relations for the group.

As prices rise, chefs are adapting, she said, experimenting with "substitutions to crab, shrimp and oysters to manage costs and stay ahead of the curve in case availability of one type of seafood dwindle."

AOL News called 20 restaurants in a dozen states. Half refused to discuss whether they were using Gulf seafood. Seven of the 10 that did talk said they weren't having any problems getting shrimp and Louisiana Blue Crab. But six, all on the East Coast, said they couldn't get or afford to buy Gulf oysters. Nine of the 10, all of whom declined to allow their names to be used, said their fishmongers were urging them to use imported shrimp and crab.

Safety of Imports Questioned

The FDA has repeatedly issued import alerts or bans against several species of Asian and South American farmed seafood because of contamination with drugs and unsafe food additives. A check of FDA warnings shows most were filed against imports from massive fish and shellfish farms in China, Thailand, Indonesia and, sporadically, from other countries.

The contaminants -- some of which were listed as carcinogenic – included a number of antimicrobial agents, disinfectants and drugs to combat diseases and parasites in heavily overcrowded fish pens.

The warnings specifically cautioned about the presence of malachite green, nitrofurans, gentian violet and fluoroquinolone.

None of these drugs is approved for use in farmed seafood in the U.S. and obviously not found in naturally harvested seafood and shellfish, agency investigators said.

Last week , the FDA said that frozen Sea Delight Tuna Steaks from Malaysia were being recalled because they had elevated histamine levels. A day later, the food safety detectives announced the recall of extra jumbo shrimp from Mexico being sold in some East Coast stores because they might contain undeclared sulfites that could cause an allergic reaction in some people.

What's The Future?

Melancon said the Gulf's subtropical climate and Mother Nature usually allow for environmental recovery of single, serious oil spill events.

Last week, the biologist found that one of his oyster research sites was hit by a light sheen of crude and dispersant.

This Deepwater Horizon/BP spill may be a "continuous oiling event for some time and Mother Nature may not necessarily be prepared to repair quickly in her own natural way,'' he said.

"But in the end this oil will be cleaned up by Mother Nature."

(Some of the research for this story was undertaken by Schneider's food safety site thefoodwatchdog.com )