The multi-billion dollar seafood black market that misleads sushi fans is the target of a new initiative by the Obama administration to tackle seafood fraud and illegal fishing. The government announced the enactment of a special task force devoted to stopping pirate fisherman who routinely sell mislabeled fish, as well as negatively impact ocean wildlife and conservation initiatives. The task force will initiate a stronger enforcement protocol with Customs to better track the seafood brought into the country.
According to the New York Times, the United States imports between $1.3 billion to $2.1 billion in illegal seafood each year. Items like tuna, red snapper and especially shrimp were routinely mislabeled, causing not only health problems for ingesting unsafe seafood, but also costing consumers big bucks when spending top of the line prices for what is actually a cheap fish, according to studies by conservation group Oceana.
In 2013, the group discovered that in a sampling of 1,200 fish nationwide, 33 percent were mislabeled. “Because our seafood currently travels through an increasingly long, complex and non-transparent supply chain, there are numerous opportunities for seafood fraud to occur and illegally caught fish to enter the U.S. market,” said senior campaign director for Oceana Beth Lowell. “From fine dining establishments in New York City to small restaurants in Kansas City to grocery stores in Los Angeles, every time Oceana has tested for seafood fraud, we’ve found it.”
