Last year, we were getting many
questions from our customers about how the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill
disaster was affecting our business and if our seafood was still safe to
eat. The spill was about 300 miles away from Galveston and headed north and
east...away from us. The effect on us had mostly been in the higher
wholesale prices that we had paid, and in the tight supplies due to the
closure of about a third of the fishing grounds in the Gulf of Mexico. But a
bigger problem was the perception that people have that all Gulf seafood was contaminated.
Our seafood is safe.
We have been selling our fresh shrimp for 36 years now and we would not be
selling it if we believed it is not safe. We know that you had seen many
disturbing images from this oil spill disaster and may have had the
perception that the entire Gulf was covered in oil. This was not the case.
We asked that you support the Gulf shrimpers and fishermen. It was a hard and uncertain time for us all.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is
continuing to work with the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
National Marine Fisheries Service, the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), other Federal agencies, and several state authorities in the regions
that were affected by the oil spill. The FDA continues to
closely monitor the
safety of seafood harvested from the area.
Since the oil spill started, we had been thinking that it
have been could be the end of our shrimp business and that a hurricane could
have blown the oil toward us. We were fortunate that this had not happened. We will
work hard to continue to bring you the freshest Gulf seafood that we can find, and hope
to continue doing so for years to come.
