NEW ORLEANS — Sales of Gulf of Mexico seafood are getting a boost from the military after being hammered by last year’s BP oil spill, which left consumers fearing that the water’s bounty had been tainted.
Ten products, including fish, shrimp, oysters, crab cakes and packaged Cajun dishes such as jambalaya and shrimp etouffee, are being promoted at 72 base commissaries along the East Coast, said Milt Ackerman, president of Military Solutions Inc., which is supplying seafood to the businesses.
Bobby Barnett, a shrimper in Pass Christian, Miss., said he was glad the U.S. government was embracing domestic and not imported seafood.
“Every sale helps us out, and we need some help to come back,” Barnett said. “You would have thought they would have been buying U.S. seafood all along.”
