Darien shrimper, industry advocates welcome new NOAA priorities

DARIEN, Ga. (WTOC) -A new America First seafood strategy from NOAA includes protections for the domestic shrimp industry.

Captain Wynn Gale is a commercial shrimper in Darien, a town that once had five docks and nearly 50 boats on the river. Now, one dock remains and only 12 boats operate there.

“It’s about time that somebody takes notice and really gets us in the limelight,” Gale said.

Gale said cheap imports, restaurant mislabeling, and the loss of infrastructure are pushing the domestic fleet toward collapse.

“Unless they focus on the working waterfront, there won’t be no more working waterfront because we’re losing it in town here,” Gale said.

Brent Fulcher, a board member of the Southern Shrimp Alliance, said he sits on the USDA Office of Seafood Roundtable and was at the White House in June when President Trump signed an executive order on U.S. borders. Fulcher said the industry’s biggest problem is restaurants passing off imported shrimp as domestic.

“We don’t have a problem with imports coming in, but represent them as imports,” Fulcher said. “Don’t tell them that an imported shrimp is a domestic shrimp and then charge additional money.”

David Williams, co-founder of SeaD Consulting, said his company has tested shrimp at more than 1,000 restaurants using a rapid genetic test and has offered that data to NOAA. He said NOAA has not yet requested it.

“We love that NOAA says there’s a problem, they want to do something about the problem, and we would love to help NOAA do that,” Williams said.

No representatives from NOAA were available for an interview, the full list of priority actions from NOAA is available here.