Restaraunteaurs to Blame !

[Cookinman]

!!)% The fault of the buyer for A - aloowing it to happen asnd creating a market and B - Still selling it anyway. Grouper joins the list now with Scallops and Pork pounded thin and sold as veal.

Brian Connell, general manager of the Fourth Street Shrimp Store, a St. Petersburg restaurant, blamed the "Box" for saying it was grouper.

Fish does not arive in a sealed box #1. And #2, I just do not believe they were duped by the supplier. THAT is total BS !

Sad. Today's Diner is far to educated for this to get by too long.

Article below.

There's something fishy on the seafood menu


As demand for grouper outswims supply, some restaurateurs practice fakery

By Peter Whoriskey
The Washington Post
Posted February 14 2007, 9:56 AM EST


MADEIRA BEACH -- What the undercover agents ordered, over and over, was the grouper.

What wound up on their plates could stifle anyone's appetite.



LocalLinks

The alleged grouper at 17 of the 24 area restaurants near St. Peteresburg sampled by the investigators was actually a less desirable species, according to a DNA analysis conducted for the state attorney general's office and released this month.

Asian catfish. Emperor. Painted sweetlips. And twice, types of fish that could not be identified.

"It's a rip-off--like taking a cheap watch and selling it as a Rolex," said Bob Spaeth, who owns six commercial fishing boats and is co-owner of one of the largest grouper distributors on the Gulf Coast. "Someone should go to jail."

In this area that some consider the national capital of grouper--more than three-quarters of the U.S. catch comes from nearby waters--the finding has amplified a local outrage that, experts say, points to a larger national problem of fish fakery.

"This problem is rampant across America," said Mark Kinsey, a special agent for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who enforces marine-resource laws. "And it isn't just grouper."

Much of the reason for the questionable grouper, red snapper and other fish stems from supply and demand, regulators and industry officials say.

With the popularity of grouper rising nationwide and the domestic catch at times limited by federal guidelines, restaurateurs have relied on imports to fill the gap.

In many instances, not only is the "grouper" in fact farm-raised Asian catfish from Vietnam or other species that swim with grouper, but the filets have shown signs of salmonella and illegal traces of carcinogenic fungicides, NOAA law-enforcement officials said.

In December, a Panama City businessman pleaded guilty to marketing more than 1 million pounds of Asian catfish as grouper, a remarkable volume considering that the domestic annual catch is about 10 million pounds. Yet law-enforcement officers said they believe there are larger cases out there.

Repeated revelations of fake grouper have scandalized diners across the state.

In August, the St. Petersburg Times reported that at six of 11 area restaurants sampled, the "grouper" was something else, according to DNA tests. One restaurant was charging $23 for "champagne braised black grouper" but was instead serving tilapia.

A television station in Fort Myers and the Daytona Beach News-Journal followed with similar findings.

Exactly whom to blame for the fraudulent fish is a matter of some debate. Some said anyone in the business should know the difference. Others said the restaurants could be victimized as much as the diner.

"If you order grouper and it says grouper on the box, what else can you do?" said Brian Connell, general manager of the Fourth Street Shrimp Store, a St. Petersburg restaurant, which state tests showed was serving green weakfish as grouper.

[bassZooKa]

mmmmm...gotta love that asian grouper

worked in a frozen foods warehouse a little while unloadin dem trucks -- alot of the fishie stuff was comin in from asian countries-- lets just say Captain D's should change their name to Captain Lee's

[onshore]

Just as bad as Publix Markets selling Chinese farm-raised little scallops as Bay Scallops.

When I questioned it and told them that Bay Scallops is a tradmarked scallop only found on Cape Cod, Marthas Vinyard and Nantucket, they first said that was where they were from, then denied it then said that was what the Chinese sold it as.

[Cookinman]

Just as bad as Publix Markets selling Chinese farm-raised little scallops as Bay Scallops.

When I questioned it and told them that Bay Scallops is a tradmarked scallop only found on Cape Cod, Marthas Vinyard and Nantucket, they first said that was where they were from, then denied it then said that was what the Chinese sold it as.

Along the lines of Champagne made from grapes from elsewhere besides Champagne France....