Gay Fish Company's retail counter on St. Helena Island sits right in front of its docks on Ward Creek, and the shrimp in the case come in at those docks. On September 23, about 250 people gathered on the creek bank next to the store for a Lowcountry boil made with shrimp from Gay Fish Company and Sea Eagle Market. They were there for the launch of "Only From Our Waters," a program from the Beaufort Area Hospitality Association.
On Wednesday, October 28, a state law takes effect that puts a sign about shrimp at the entrance of many restaurants in Beaufort, Port Royal and Lady's Island. The sign answers one question: whether the shrimp came from outside the United States. The question most people in northern Beaufort County are really asking is whether the shrimp came from these waters. The law never uses that word.
The Sign Comes in Two Versions, and No Sign Means a Third Thing
The law is H.4248, now Act 254, which adds Section 39-25-175 to the South Carolina Code. It passed the House 95-0 and the Senate 33-5 on June 25, and the governor signed it June 30. It covers any business selling ready-to-eat food, and it names restaurants, cafeterias, food stands and food trucks.
A restaurant that serves both imported and domestic shrimp has to post this wording, word for word:
"Some items served at this establishment may contain foreign imported shrimp. Ask for more information."
A restaurant that serves only imported shrimp drops "may" from the same sentence. The wording goes on the menu, if there is one, and on a sign at the main entrance. According to guidance from the South Carolina Department of Agriculture, the sign can be framed on the entrance wall or posted on the door. A food truck posts it where you can see it from the serving window. A temporary sticker or insert counts on a menu until new menus are printed.
Starting October 28, a restaurant entrance on Boundary Street or Sea Island Parkway will show one of three things.
| What's at the entrance | What it tells you | What it doesn't tell you |
|---|---|---|
| "may contain foreign imported shrimp" | The kitchen buys both imported and domestic shrimp | How much of each, or which dish uses which |
| "contain foreign imported shrimp" | All of the kitchen's shrimp is imported | Nothing more is needed |
| No sign at a restaurant | The kitchen serves only domestic shrimp, or no shrimp at all | Whether any of it came from Beaufort County waters |
The first row is the one that matters most. A kitchen that buys imported shrimp only for one appetizer posts the same sentence as a kitchen that uses imported shrimp everywhere except the daily special. The law's answer to that is the last line of the sign, "Ask for more information."
The Department of Agriculture will check compliance during its unannounced routine inspections and when it gets complaints. A first violation gets a warning and three days to fix it. Later violations bring a civil fine of $100 to $5,000 for each day the violation continues.
Where "Local" Drops Out of the Law
The statute has two categories. "Domestic shrimp" means shrimp "caught and landed in waters of a state or waters of the United States," and "foreign imported shrimp" means shrimp imported into the country. A shrimp caught off another state's coast counts as domestic. So does a shrimp unloaded at Gay Fish Company's dock on Ward Creek. The Island Packet's summary puts it simply: restaurants that serve only shrimp caught in U.S. coastal waters "don't have to do anything."
That gap matters because "local" is the word that started the fight. The Post and Courier reports that the push for disclosure came after SeaD Consulting, a Texas research firm, used genetic testing and found Charleston-area restaurants overwhelmingly serving imported shrimp, even though several advertised local shrimp. The industry came to call this "Shrimpgate." A shrimpers' lawsuit that followed was dismissed by a federal judge. State Rep. Shannon Erickson of Beaufort, one of the bill's sponsors, described the problem to the paper in terms of the menu board: "You walk in (to a restaurant) and if the board reads local shrimp and you order fried shrimp and it's not local, what does it mean?"
The law makes that board more honest about imports. It doesn't make "local" a regulated term. A restaurant serving only domestic shrimp from far away posts no sign, and neither does a restaurant buying straight from St. Helena Island.
One more exemption explains why the dock markets below won't have the sign either. The law doesn't apply to retail food businesses that sell only raw shrimp.
The Decal Answers What the Sign Leaves Open
Beaufort's own answer to the "local" question came a month before the law took effect, and it came from the hospitality industry. "Only From Our Waters" is free to join. Participating businesses get their shrimp tested by researchers at the University of South Carolina Beaufort, and they receive a decal. The association's program page describes the verification work with USC Beaufort's Department of Natural Sciences. The decal reads "only from our waters" and "proudly serving local and American and wild-caught shrimp."
The decal also promises more than the absence of a state sign. It covers wild-caught shrimp from local or American waters, and it's backed by a genetic test. At launch, about 25 businesses had signed up. No public list of participants exists yet, so the window decal itself is how you'll know.
BAHA president and CEO Ashlee Houck told the Post and Courier that businesses outside the program won't be tested. She also described what shrimpers are asking for: "(Shrimpers) are not asking for them to serve their product but are saying stop using our brand." Craig Reaves, a Beaufort shrimper who owns Sea Eagle Market and helped found BAHA, made a similar point in the same article: "I'm not anti-global seafood in a global market. I'm anti-fraud. I'm anti people claiming to be using local and they're not."
The supply behind the brand is small. In the Island Packet, Reaves has put the number of commercial shrimp boats working in Beaufort County at eight or nine, compared with 50 or 60 in the 1980s and '90s. Statewide, SCDNR figures cited by the paper put the annual shrimp harvest at about 2.5 million pounds worth around $8 million, which makes shrimp the state's top seafood.
The Docks Are Still the Surest Answer
The most direct way to know where your shrimp came from in Beaufort hasn't changed with the law. Buy it from the people who unload it. This is also the right time of year. According to SCDNR, fall white shrimp landings usually start in August, peak in September and October, and run through December or sometimes into January.
- Gay Fish Company, 1948 Sea Island Parkway, St. Helena Island. The company says its shrimp comes from local waters through its own docks. Open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Sunday.
- Sea Eagle Market, 2149 Boundary Street in Beaufort, listed as open Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. A second location at Village Creek, 34 Hallmark Road on St. Helena Island, sells seafood landed at its working docks.
- Dubs Seafood, 1421 Ribaut Road in Port Royal, next to Alvin Ord's. According to LOCAL Life, the stand sells wild-caught shrimp from its own boat six days a week. Explore Beaufort lists it as open Tuesday through Sunday.
- Port Royal Farmers Market, Naval Heritage Park at 1615 Ribaut Road, open Saturdays year-round from 9 a.m. to noon. Shrimp vendors include Captain John Payne's "Buddy Roe" shrimp; the market says he has been shrimping for 45 years. Dubs also sells at the market on Saturday mornings.
When you're eating out, the new sign tells you whether imported shrimp is in the kitchen. The decal tells you a USC Beaufort test stands behind the shrimp. At a dock market, you can see the boats behind the counter. This summary is general information drawn from the statute and state guidance, not legal advice, so any business with questions about the rule should start with the law itself and the Department of Agriculture.
I keep a running list of the Beaufort counters and kitchens that make it easy to know what's on your plate, and I'm happy to share it, whether you've lived here for years or are just starting to learn the place. Reach out through Eoin ODriscoll. FOLLOW YOUR DREAM, HOME.
