Sorry about the format. This is how I received it.
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> The Maryland> Crab In Your Crab Cake is Probably
> Fake
>
>
>
>
>
First, we discovered
> that the fish in our sushi isn't what it claims to
be;
> then, that 30% of U.S.
> shrimp is making fools of us. Now, a new
report from the
> conservation group
> Oceana finds that your tasty Maryland
crab cake isn't
> safe from seafood fraud,
> either. A full 38% of
Maryland
> crab cakes the group
> tested contained imported crab from places
as far away as
> Indonesia and Thailand
> instead of Maryland blue
>
crab."Local rare delicacies in
> seafood are frequently mislabeled because
they’re not
> widely available," says
> Dr. Kimberly Warner, report author
and senior scientist at
> Oceana. "Once you
> take off the shell of the blue
crab and mix it into a patty,
> it’s hard to tell
> what it is you’re
eating."
> Warner and her colleagues went to
> restaurants in the Maryland
and Washington DC area and
> collected 90 crab cakes.
> The researchers sent
them to a lab for DNA testing to
> determine the species of
> the crab in the
cakes. 38% of the crab cakes sold as local
> blue crab didn’t
> contain any
local blue crab at all; instead, they were
> stuffed with imported
> canned
swimming crab, mostly from the Indo-Pacific region.
> The scientists
>
identified eight species, besides blue crabs, in the
> supposedly blue crab
>
cakes.
>
> The researchers found fraud regardless of a venue's
> price
point. And all that fraud is economically motivated,
> Warner says. When
>
menus described jumbo lump crab cakes as coming from
> Maryland, they were
$2.12
> higher than those that didn't specify a region.
>
> Your chances
of getting actual
> Maryland blue crab varied depending
> on where
geographically you dined in or around
> Maryland. Nearly half of crab
> cakes
found in Annapolis and Baltimore were
> mislabeled. Ocean City and Washington,
D.C., had
> "fraud" levels of about
> 38%. Your best chance of
> getting a
real Maryland crab
> cake is on the Eastern Shore, the researchers found,
where
> only one crab cake
> out of 11 was mislabeled.
>
> "This is kind
of a
> not-so-secret secret in this area," says Steve Vilnit,
> Director of
Fisheries
> Marketing director for the Maryland Department of Natural
>
Resources and a
> contributor to the report. "Maryland does not produce
>
enough crabmeat to supply
> all the restaurants in the region...but many
>
consumers—tourists and even
> locals—come to this area and think they’re
buying local
> crab meat because we’re
> simply in Maryland." The sad fact,
he says, is that not
> many restaurants use
> local crab meat.
> Maryland
blue crab is considered a "best choice"
> or "good
> alternative" according
to the Monterey Bay
> Aquarium's Seafood Watch 2015
> recommendations.
Ironically, though, it's often
> substituted with crab the same
> regulations
mark "avoid", due to the use of
> destructive fishing gear like bottom
>
trawling, an industrial fishing method that ensnares any
> kind of marine
species
> caught in its path.
> In March, a presidential task force released
an action
> plan to combat seafood mislabeling and illegal and
> unregulated
fishing,
> including starting a traceability program and getting rid of
>
harmful fishery
> subsidies that fuel overfishing by 2020.
> In the meantime,
however, steering
> clear of seafood fraud is largely up to you. "We always
>
say to ask more
> questions from whoever you’re buying your seafood from,
>
whether a restaurant or
> grocery store or market," says report author
Warner.
> "If the people who sell us
> seafood don’t understand that we care
about that
> information, then they’re not
> going to provide it."
> Buy
traceable seafood, the study authors say, which
> follows fish from where it's
caught or farmed up until
> it arrives on your plate,
> when you can, she
says.
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