This time around, Williams noted that restaurants sampled have been more forthcoming about selling imported shrimp.

“We’ve just finished sampling Charleston. A lot more restaurants, when asked on the phone whether or not they were serving imported or wild-caught shrimp, said they were serving imported shrimp,” Williams said. “Which is a move forward, but they’re still serving imported shrimp, and they’re still overlooking fishing boats.”

The testing is part of an eight-state endeavor funded by the Southern Shrimp Alliance, a federal advocacy group for commercial shrimpers. Blake Price, deputy director of the SSA, said the organization wants states to adopt legislation for food labeling in restaurants and grocery stores.

“Currently, there are only four out of the eight shrimp-producing states…that have labeling laws,” Price said. “We’re very hopeful that this continued funding for SeaD from the Southern Shrimp Alliance will continue to increase that awareness and push for labeling laws and enforcement.”

SeaD Consulting’s testing throughout those shrimp-producing states—Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina—showed that restaurants tested in ones with labeling laws in place had higher rates of authenticity than those without.

Since the research firm began testing restaurants in 2024, 58 percent of sampled restaurants in Alabama and Louisiana were found to be selling U.S.-caught shrimp and advertising it as such. Testing done in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina and South Carolina yielded a lower percentage at 14.77 percent.

SeaD researchers found that 65 percent of the shrimp dishes tested in the eight states were considered inauthentic. Williams said researchers have tested nearly 1,000 restaurants since 2024.

By SeaD’s definition, inauthentic dishes are “menu items containing imported, farm-raised shrimp, where menu, staff claims or location, branding, imagery and language implied the product was domestic wild-caught.”