(https://coastalreview.org/2025/12/imported-shrimp-served-at-restaurants-touting-local-catch/)
“Genetic testing of purportedly wild-caught shrimp served earlier this month at dozens of Outer Banks restaurants found that 64% of the shrimp was actually imported.”
People can’t taste the difference?
Many people can taste the difference, but … the Outer Banks are filled with tourists who are likely to just leave without comment.
Asian farmed shrimp and Asian calamari are commonly served in Greece, as well.
The customer has to specify that they want local, fresh shrimp or local, fresh calamari. Some restaurant staff might not know the difference, even if asked. I remember asking about the source of some softshell crab up here in Canada once time, and I knew the seasons and sources, and the answer the server gave me after claiming to ask the chef could not have been true.
The frozen imports are cheaper, more plentiful , and available year-round, of course.
Florida is full of restaurants that sell “grouper” that is not even close to being grouper. And very few people call them on it.
Shrimp is small fry compared to grouper.
Sorry, I should not have gone there.
Not surprised.
A lot of cheap sushi restos in Canada know that what they’re selling is not what they’re claiming to sell. Buyer beware LOL.
Most red snapper sold in Canada isn’t red snapper, either. LOL
All this is going to become curiouser and curiouser the way things are going.
This is awful to hear. That locally caught wild shrimp was a great treat.
When my husband and I were first married, we used to trek from New England to the Outer Banks for beach vacations. At the time anyway, prices were gentler than they were here. I hated cleaning shrimp, but the taste of the fresh caught North Carolina shrimp was worth it. The family owned fish market we went to didn’t offer it every day, only when a boat had come in.
we lived in Jacksonville, FL in the early 70’s. go down to the docks and pick up a whole bucket of shrimp from the boat . . . $1.
not now . . .
I’m very careful to read the labels - I want domestic wild caught. it is more expensive, but our local fishmonger has ‘the genuine stuff’
