A new video report on crabbing in Louisiana is going viral, mostly because it documents a highly contaminated catch in St. Bernard Parish but also because operators at B&K Crabbing say a state official nixed any sort of investigation.
When the crabs were dumped onto processing tables, the smell nearly knocked people off their feet, the report notes. Photos from fishermen appear to show clearly contaminated crabs. And a veteran of six decades of crabbing gets emotional as he asserts that he doesn’t “…want to hurt nobody.”
So the fishermen did what anybody would do: They called the state to notify the authorities. They were told a biologist from Wildlife and Fisheries would be there within an hour. When he never showed, and the crabs all died – and of course became less valuable for testing – the fishermen called to see what happened. The next day, the biologist said that his “superior” had ordered him not to go test the crabs.
As we’ve said time and again on this blog, it is way too early to sound the “all clear” on seafood safety – particularly when we have government officials burying their heads in the sand.
© Smith Stag, LLC 2010 – All Rights Reserved
