ISLAMORADA, Fla. — The postcard Florida experience: sun, fun and plenty of local seafood. It was the latter that brought Gary and Vicki Haller from Kansas to Wahoo's here last week, with its waterfront views, toucan colors and promise of fresh food "from our docks."
"We live in cow country," Mr. Haller said. "Here we eat fish."
But the fish in his "belly buster" sandwich actually traveled farther than he did. It was Pangasius, a freshwater catfish from Vietnam. The grouper and tuna were also imports, according to Wahoo's managers. And the "local" label on the menu? It still applied, they insisted, because their distributor was down the road.
Florida, from sea to plate, just is not the seafood buffet it once was. Reeling from a record, fish-killing cold snap and tougher federal limits on what can be caught, commercial fishermen and charter-boat captains are struggling. Distributors and restaurants are relying more and more on imported seafood — some of it clearly labeled, a lot of it not.
Federal fisheries managers say that a law reauthorized by Congress in 2006 now requires them to take more aggressive action against overfishing. They cut back the legal catch for some kinds of snapper last year, and 11 species of grouper are now off limits from January through April on the Atlantic coast. It is the longest ban on record for grouper and the first to include both commercial and recreational fleets.
In a state that bills itself as "the fishing capital of the world" — with a commercial industry worth $5.2 billion and a recreational one worth $4.4 billion — thousands of anglers are angry.
"For a fisherman that works 12 months a year, you've just taken a third of his livelihood," said Tom Hill, whose family has owned Key Largo Fisheries since 1972. "You've also taken away the ability of someone who comes here to enjoy a local piece of fish."
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