FISHING NEWS

The Florida Attorney General’s Office has already subpoenaed records from more than a dozen Tampa Bay area restaurants as part of an investigation into the sale of artificial or fake grouper. 

Investigators are seeking purchase orders, vendor invoices and a list of wholesale providers from chain restaurants such as Hooters and the Winghouse, as well as independent operators such as the Fourth Street Shrimp Store in St. Petersburg. 

The attorney general’s investigation started after a St. Pete Times story on Aug. 6 disclosed that six of 11 area restaurants in a random survey advertised grouper but served something else. One Palm Harbor restaurant charged $23.95 for “champagne braised black grouper” that was actually tilapia. 

Fish from several restaurants in the Tampa Bay area have been tested in the attorney general’s investigation. 

According to the subpoena issued to the Fourth Street Shrimp Store on Nov. 16, “The general purpose and scope of this investigation extends to the possible unfair and deceptive trade practices.” 

The documents in question concern “customer orders for menu items relating to ‘grouper’ during the period September 3, 2006, through October 13, 2006.” 

“The Shrimp Store has never purchased anything but grouper,” she said. “We buy our grouper from one supplier and it is certified as grouper.” 

According to some industry insiders, fish substitution is so prevalent in Florida that it may be unstoppable. 

In May, a federal grand jury indicted a Panama City seafood wholesaler on charges of importing 1-million pounds of frozen Asian catfish for as little as $1.52 a pound, then passing it off as grouper, which can wholesale for four times as much. 

That same month, the Times purchased grouper meals from 11 restaurants around the bay area. 

Therion International, an animal DNA testing service in Saratoga, N.Y., determined that five of the restaurant samples were fakes. They included an Asian catfish called basa, tilapia and European hake. A sixth fish could not be identified, except that it was not of the grouper genus.