Nestled into the town of Bayou La Batre, the seafood capital of Alabama, is a business focused on one of the tastiest crustaceans the Gulf of Mexico has to offer: blue crab. Dana Taylor is the owner of Dana's Seafood, and she comes from a seafood family. They were among the original settlers of Dauphin Island, Alabama and the family still has property there. They have been in the seafood industry for so many generations, they can't put a number on it. "We've been in the seafood business forever," says Taylor. "It's something we are very proud of."
When asked what she is most proud of in her business, Dana boasts the high quality of her brand. "We provide a quality product at a fair market price, while still operating as a small family business." And that quality product has earned Dana recognition. You can find Dana's blue crab at multiple Rouses stores in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Auburn Extension featured her seafood in their Farm to Table Dinner series in 2012, and in April 2014, Dana's Seafood was Alabama Seafood's featured processor of the month.
But Dana Taylor takes her product to the next level. She is focused on sustainability, not just in the form of healthy crab populations, but also in utilization of every part of a crab. The backs of the crabs processed in her facility go to a company where they are washed and sold to restaurants to use as garnish and appealing presentations for stuffed crab. In addition, Dana's offers a minced meat product that utilizes the smaller pieces of crab meat that cling to the shell. After the crab body is picked, the remains are sent through a machine that presses out the remaining meat and vacuum freezes it. Whatever is left gets made into crab meal.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Gulf United for Lasting Fisheries (G.U.L.F.)
