Gulf Seafood’s Falling Supply, Demand Disrupt Industry

IRVINGTON, Ala. — Normally, more than 70 workers would cram shoulder-to-shoulder inside the Southern Aire Seafood crab processing plant, scooping out white lump meat from the bellies of Louisiana blue crabs and stuffing them into containers.
On a recent afternoon, only 25 gloved workers pulled meat and dislocated crab claws inside the plant's one-room picking area. Several long aluminum tables stood clean and empty. The crabs were from Virginia, not the Gulf Coast.

"It's slowed way down," says Tony Lyons, Southern Aire's owner, who says the plant's revenue has slid 95% since the start of the Gulf oil spill. "We may not be open by the first of the year."

The oil spill derailed a slew of businesses along the Gulf Coast, from fishermen to marinas to restaurants and hotels. But seafood processors such as Southern Aire have been doubly hurt. There are 195 seafood processors across the Gulf Coast employing more than 9,000 workers and generating more than $1 billion in revenue a year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Seafood supply is down because fishermen who normally bring in the crabs, shrimp and fish have been employed with BP cleaning up the spill or have not been able to return to their fisheries because of the oil. At the same time, demand is down because their longtime customers, such as restaurants and grocery chains, have turned to other sources or are skittish to buy Gulf seafood.

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Photo by Rick Jervis, USA Today