Recalled Radioactive Shrimp Could Still End Up On Americans’ Dinner Tables

Back-to-back recalls of potentially radioactive shrimp from an Indonesian exporter may buoy U.S. shrimpers, who have struggled for decades to compete with cheaper, often farm-raised imported products.

Since the discovery of cesium-137 contamination — a synthetic radioactive isotope — in shipping containers used by Indonesian shrimp exporter PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati, or BMS, in early September, the Food and Drug Administration has refused more than 300 shipments from the company.

The FDA has placed BMS on an import alert, which means its products will not be allowed to enter U.S. ports until the issues that caused the Cs-137 contamination are resolved.

But that’s not the end of the story.

What Happens To Tainted Shrimp?

The shrimp refused at U.S. ports may still end up on Americans’ dinner tables, according to the Southern Shrimp Alliance.

The shrimp deemed unfit for consumption wasn’t automatically destroyed, but rather returned to BMS for disposition as the exporter saw fit, the SSA said. The same thing happened earlier this year when imported shrimp was turned away after it was found to be contaminated with veterinary drug residues, the alliance said.

The SSA says the “re-export option” is a critical flaw that undermines the nation’s food safety system. It permits dangerous products to exit the country and potentially re-enter through various entry points, a practice known as port-shopping.

The FDA tests only about 0.4 percent of imported seafood for contaminants, creating “an intolerable risk that refused products end up back on American dinner plates if not destroyed,” the SSA said in the statement.

“And even if the shrimp do not end up back in the United States, the exporter may still sell the shrimp to other markets, reducing incentives to ensure that healthy product is shipped in the first instance,” the SSA continued. “Other major importing markets do not permit this and destroy contaminated, dangerous food.”

The Destruction of Hazardous Imports Act of 2025, introduced by Louisiana Congressmen Clay Higgins, a Republican, and Troy A. Carter, a Democrat, would close the loophole by authorizing the FDA to destroy imported food products that pose a significant public health concern.

“If a product is not safe to eat, it should be destroyed. The FDA has the authority to destroy imported drugs and medical devices, but not imported food,” John Williams, executive director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance, said in the statement in support of the legislation.

Can U.S. Shrimpers Meet Demand?

Last year’s 158.9 million pound harvest from the U.S. Gulf and South Atlantic was “by far” the smallest catch since 1961, the Shrimp Alliance said in a Sept 15 analysis.

The relatively small catch is confirmation of “the incredible damage caused to the U.S. shrimp industry by the massive influx of cheap, farmed shrimp imported into this country over the last four years,” the shrimpers alliance said.

The alliance maintains it is materially harmed by imports of frozen warmwater shrimp from Indonesia, which it says is sold below fair market value, and from Ecuador, India and Vietnam, where shrimp farmers are subsidized by their respective governments.

“If unfair trade is offset, American shrimpers can quickly and significantly increase the amount of domestic shrimp in the U.S. market, providing consumers with more superior-tasting, local shrimp,” Deborah Long, a spokesperson for the Southern Shrimp Alliance, told Patch in an email.

“We don't need to replace imports,” Long continued. “We need imports sold in the U.S. market to cover the full costs of production without relying on subsidies, forced labor, banned antibiotics, or environmental harms.”

Tariffs A Lifeline For Sinking Industry

Cheap imports flooding the U.S. market and restaurants have driven down prices to the point that profits are razor-thin or shrimpers are losing money and struggling to stay afloat.

Since 2021, the price of imported shrimp has dropped by more than $1.5 billion, causing the U.S. shrimp industry to lose nearly 50 percent of its market value, according to the shrimpers alliance.

The trade industry group complains that the overseas industry has benefitted from billions of dollars invested in shrimp aquaculture, cheap or even forced labor, the use of antibiotics banned in the U.S., and few or no environmental regulations.

President Donald Trump’s tariffs, shrimpers say, could be a lifeline for their sinking industry.

“It’s been tough the last several years that we’ve tried to fight through this,” Reed Bowers, owner of Bowers Shrimp Farm in Palacios, Texas, told The Associated Press last spring.

Tough times meant difficult choices for many. “Cutting people off, laying people off, or reduce hours or reduce wages … whatever we can do to survive,” Bowers said.

“I’m not a believer in free trade,” he said. “I’m a believer in fair trade. So if you’re gonna sell into the United States, I think it’s very important to get the same rules and regulations that I have to have as a farmer here in the United States.”

Multigenerational family businesses have had to tie up their boats because they’re unable to compete with foreign producers operating under more relaxed guidelines, Southern Shrimp Alliance executive director John Williams said in a statement. The shrimpers trade group backs the tariffs as a tool to “preserve American jobs, food security, and our commitment to ethical production.”

“Our government has been outsourcing our food supply to companies engaged in practices we would never accept on American soil,” Williams said. “Without quickly addressing unfair trade, we are choosing a food supply chain that is fully outsourced to industries that engage in horrible practices. If we wait for systemic reforms, we will lose our domestic shrimp industry.”

Before the tariffs, about 94 percent of the shrimp — and all seafood — consumed in the United States was imported. That’s a sharp contrast to overall U.S. food imports, which account for about 15 percent of the food Americans eat, according to the FDA.

Phan Tran’s family used to be shrimpers but quit the boats around 25 years ago to open Tran’s Family Restaurant in Palacios, Texas.

Tran told The AP he doesn’t want to serve imported shrimp to his customers. He doesn’t know what shortcuts foreign shrimper firms take.

“The taste, the size, you could tell the texture of the shrimp, everything. … Domestic shrimp versus imported shrimp, you could tell the difference,” Tran said, adding he’ll be buying straight from the day’s catch at the dock, “as long as we have the restaurant business.”

Tariffs will help keep the market fair for local shrimpers, Tran said.

“We used to have a sign on our window here that says, ‘friends don’t let friends eat imported shrimp,’” Tran said. “And a few people got a little offended by it, so we had to take it off. (But) that’s a true statement that we stand by here.”

Tariffs Reshape Shrimping Industry

The tariffs already appear to be reshaping the shrimp industry to favor Ecuador, the second-largest provider of shrimp to the United States behind India.

The United States previously imposed either anti-dumping, countervailing duties on frozen shrimp imports from several countries, including Ecuador, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, raising their combined tariff rates. Anti-dumping tariffs are a tax tacked on imported shrimp the government says undercuts the U.S. shrimp industry with unfairly low prices. Countervailing duties are imposed to offset government subsidies provided by the exporting country.

Of the four countries, Ecuador fares the best with a 15 percent reciprocal tariff and a total tariff rate of around 19 percent. Indonesia’s combined tariff rate is around 25 percent, but the combined tariff rate from both India and Vietnam is around 58 percent.

Ecuador’s total shrimp exports saw a 17.51 percent year-over-year increase from June 2024 to 2025, according to S&P Global. During the same period, shipments to the United States surged by 43.72 percent, the report said.

How Does The Dead Zone Affect Shrimp?

The U.S. shrimping industry has challenges beyond the long-standing trade deficit with shrimp-producing countries.

Shrimp are among the most valuable fishery resources off the U.S. Gulf states of Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

The industry’s successes are also affected by the “dead zone,” a large area of oxygen-deprived hypoxic water at the mouth of the Mississippi River that this year is estimated at 4,402 square miles — or nearly the size of Connecticut.

Agricultural runoff and urban wastewater flowing down the Mississippi fuel massive algae blooms, and when the algae die and decompose, most marine life, including fish and crabs, can’t survive.

Shrimp can swim away from the toxic stew.

“However, for some shrimpers, that means a longer commute and more fuel to harvest them,” said Long, the shrimp alliance spokesperson.

With shrimp populations crowded into smaller, more viable areas, competition for the catch increases among fishers and overall boat catches decrease. The catch can also include more small and fewer more lucrative large shrimp, increasing competition from importers.

More Signs Of Life

Louisiana, the country’s leading source of shrimp and second-leading source of seafood overall behind Alaska, has been hit especially hard. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates the dead zone costs the state’s seafood and tourism industries $82 million a year.

Politicians and environmental scientists from the states that contribute the most fertilizer runoff into the Mississippi River — specifically Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana — have encouraged farmers to adopt practices such as planting cover crops, adjusting crop rotation methods, and implementing other measures to prevent polluted water from flowing into the Gulf.

The 2025 Gulf dead zone is about 30 percent smaller than last year and the 15th smallest measurement on record. The reduction is considered an encouraging sign, but still exceeds the goal set by the Gulf Hypoxia Task Force, according to the NOAA.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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