René O'Deay gBlog

NEW ORLEANS (May 06, 2010- The Times-Picayune)—The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, New Orleans chefs, seafood dealers and grocers united in shouting one message from the rooftops: Louisiana seafood is safe to eat.

"Louisiana seafood is alive and well and healthy and safe, " said Harlon Pearce, who owns Harlon's LA Fish, chairs the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board and is on the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council.

Seafood is a $2.4 billion industry in the state, with Louisiana providing a third of the domestic seafood in the contiguous 48 states, Smith said, noting that the state is the nation's No. 1 producer of shrimp, oysters, blue crabs, crawfish and alligator, and the No. 2 producer of finfish.

"From the seafood supply end of it, things are not as bad as we may have expected, " Montero added on Tuesday.

While south Louisiana residents wait in limbo for the next developments, Smith has a suggestion: "The best way consumers can help us right now is go out and dine or go to the store and buy Louisiana seafood, to help shore up the markets that we're taking a 23 percent hit on."