Senaturs Urge Battle Against Fraudulent Crabmeat

OCEAN CITY — U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and her colleagues in neighboring Virginia last week fired off a strongly worded letter urging the Obama administration to take steps to combat seafood fraud.

Mikulski, along with Virginia Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, and Congressman Rob Wittman, urged the administration to include the fraudulent labeling of crabmeat in its efforts to combat fishing and seafood fraud. It has come to light recently that some seafood processors are deceptively labeling foreign crabmeat as a “product of the United States” by importing foreign crabmeat and repacking it in domestic facilities, misleading consumers as to its origin.

“Maryland’s seafood industry is critical for jobs on the Eastern Shore and our way of life,” said Mikulski. “When families read the crabmeat they are consuming is the product of the United States, they expect it to be. We must end the practice of dangerous and deceptive labeling of imported crabmeat that puts in jeopardy the livelihoods of Maryland’s watermen.”

In June, the administration called for the establishment of a comprehensive framework to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated Fishing and seafood fraud. With the effort to combat fraudulent fishing and seafood just now getting underway, Mikulksi and her colleagues from Virginia are taking the opportunity to ask the administration to tack on efforts to combat the illegal labeling of foreign crabmeat and presenting it as a domestic product.

“As the departments listed in your memorandum undertake their work on this effort, we’d like to draw your attention to the issue of fraudulent labeling of Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean blue crab meat,” the letter to the president reads. “It has come to our attention that some processors are importing foreign crabmeat, repackaging it at a domestic processing facility and then labeling it as a product of the United States. As a result, domestically harvested crabmeat is competing against less expensive foreign crabmeat. Deceptive labeling misleads consumers and threatens the livelihood of watermen in our states.”

While Mikulski was going to bat for watermen and legitimate seafood processing plants along Maryland’s portion of the Chesapeake and across the Eastern Shore, her colleagues in Virginia were putting forth a similar effort for their watermen and seafood industry.