According to a report the government is increasingly looking to hook consumers by branding their local seafood specialties, both to help reel in revenue and to give a boost to commercial fishermen struggling with declining stocks and tighter regulations. The officials in Louisiana are creating a top-of-the-catch program for shrimp and oysters. Rhode Island is distributing logo-emblazoned quahog carriers.
In Massachusetts lawmakers are weighing whether to create a branding program that “embraces the historic roots of fishing in the commonwealth.” Edward Barrett, a commercial fisherman and president of the Massachusetts Fisherman’s Partnership, said that in the marketplace there’s a lot of confusion these days about where things come from and how fresh they are.
Harlon Pearce, chairman of Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, opined that it is high time to create a different market for seafood products as it will help the fishermen first and foremost. Rhode Island distributes special purple mesh bags with a distinctive logo for fisherman to store their quahogs, the local delicacy, on the trip to the distributor.
Florida is running a “Go Native!” campaign to encourage restaurants to serve locally harvested fish. The Maine Lobster Promotion Council distributes “Certified Maine Lobster” tags to lobstermen to guarantee people shelling out big bucks for Maine lobster in restaurants across the country aren’t being served “impostor lobsters” from other states or Canada.
