Virginia lawmakers urge 'bait to plate' tracking to combat crab meat fraud
The president's task force on seafood fraud recommended some fixes earlier this year to prevent the sale of fake Chesapeake blue crab — but those fixes don't go far enough, Virginia lawmakers say.
So on Tuesday, U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner joined with U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Westmoreland, to urge President Barack Obama to take a more comprehensive "bait to plate" approach and track crab meat all the way from the source to the consumer.
Doing so, the lawmakers said, would protect not only the consumer but the honest watermen and seafood processors who are undermined by those who sell or package cheaper crab species as premium Chesapeake blue crab.
Lawmakers also want to require documentation for the many crab species imported from Indonesia, China and other countries that are known to be illegally substituted for the more valuable Chesapeake blue crab.
In March, the Presidential Task Force to Combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing and Seafood Fraud recommended only tracking imported seafood to the first domestic point of sale, and tracking only the Chesapeake blue crab as an "at risk" species.
But more is needed, lawmakers said in a letter to the president, to "fully and comprehensively prevent the fraudulent activities that are negatively impacting Virginia and Maryland watermen."
Such fraud undercuts a lucrative fishery that generates nearly $30 million in ex-vessel or gross revenue in Virginia each year, they said, and more than $58 million annually in Maryland. Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski also joined in the letter.
"Deceptive labeling misleads consumers and threatens the livelihood of the watermen in our states," the lawmakers said. "We have a duty to protect the efforts of our honest fishermen and the economic gains from this resource."
Their recommendations come five months after a report released by the Washington, D.C.-based international advocacy group Oceana into crab cakes sold in restaurants in Washington and Maryland. Virginia wasn't included in the study.
According to the study, DNA testing showed that nearly 40 percent the crab cakes served or sold as the more expensive Chesapeake blue crab weren't blue crab at all but a species imported from the Indo-Pacific region and the Pacific coast of Mexico.
In June, federal investigators began looking into whether Casey's Seafood Inc. in Newport News was falsely packaging and labeling imported crab meat as Atlantic blue crab and a product of the United States. A federal search warrant was executed at the company's seafood house on Jefferson Avenue, but no charges have been filed.
Blue crabs are in the genus known as callinectes. According to Oceana, 90 percent of the crab the United State imports as callinectes comes from Indonesia, China, India, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand — places where the species isn't even found.
