The Gulf Oil Spill and the Seafood Industry

We’ve all seen the horrific pictures of the Gulf Oil Spill. With oil and possibly other chemicals washing up on the shores, the various animals covered in oil struggling for survival and the talking heads going on and on, blaming each other for what happened, and why the cleanup is taking so long. It’s in short, mind boggling that we are still dealing with all the finger pointing and quite frankly, the lack of accurate information coming from the Gulf region. I don’t think I’m alone in thinking we are not getting all the information.

We are asking and we are asked; how will this affect the seafood industry? The short answer is we don’t know. Customers are asking their local restaurants. Restaurants including AGAR’s customers are asking us. And vendors are asking the “Experts.” As of right now, there is no good answer. As a wholesale food distributor that moves over 8 million pounds of seafood each year through this building including the Nautifish brand, you can imagine the number of questions we are getting.

Because of this, we have taken on a very important initiative here. We are helping to fund and raising funds for Ocean Alliance’s Odyssey Expedition to the Gulf Region. Many know that we already partner with them on our Nautifish brand of seafood. Now we have taken this to the next level at this critical time in our history.

The mission is to gain a clearer understanding of the consequences of oil and chemical dispersants in the Gulf Region. One of the species Ocean Alliance will track and research is the Sperm Whale. As the Sperm Whale is at the top of the food chain, the research gained can help determine the health of our oceans and the precious marine life that call them home.

Please see my discussion with our Seafood Category Manager Gary Lanoue about what we are trying to achieve by helping to fund this mission and what we hope to find out through their research.  And to learn more or to donate to this very vital mission, please go over to the Nautifish website; http://www.nautifishseafood.com/odyssey/