GRAND PRAIRIE — Fishing in the Gulf of Mexico has been shut down from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the Florida Panhandle, where one-fifth of the nation's overall seafood comes from.
If you're eating an oyster, there's a good chance it came from the Gulf region. Louisiana alone produces about 42 percent of the nation's oysters.
Restaurants in North Texas are expecting that seafood prices will rise as a result.
Marianne Vasbinder is enjoying seafood while she can. "As of this morning, I felt I better have my crab cake, yes, because I just saw the headlines. You know, [the oil spill is] five times worse than it's supposed to be."
The oil spill also has shrimpers concerned. Charles Madere, a former shrimper, says he thinks the disaster will be terrible for the economy. The seafood industry is Louisiana alone is worth $2.4 billion.
At Rick's Chophouse in McKinney, the oil spill is already affecting the menu. The owner says he worked two months on developing a new fish plate, but decided not to put it on the menu.
"The snapper we were developing.. we're just going to walk away from it and go a different direction." Rick Wells worries the spill will soon affect prices on his other menu items. 40% of his menu is seafood, with much of it from the gulf coast.
Seafood distributors worry they will soon be scrambling for other fish. Fruge Distributors in Grand Prairie built its business off Louisiana's seafood. Now, the company is stocking up on things like shrimp.
Specialist Tom Smith says the spill has not affected the supply yet, but he wants to be prepared. "We'll definitely max that out as much as we can, because of the potential for a problem."
E-mail jbetz@wfaa.com
