A new job is to be featured at this year's Annual National Shrimp Festival as the Chief Shrimp Investigator (CSI) will ensure that all vendors are complying with state seafood laws.

Chandra Wright, director of environmental and educational outreach for Gulf State Park, will be volunteering as the inaugural CSI agent.

"While it's a bit tongue-in-cheek and we want to have fun with it, there's a serious mission behind it," she said in a press release on the subject. "With 52 years of festival history, we want to get back to its original intention to celebrate our local shrimping industry. The hardworking men and women who harvest, process and market our Gulf shrimp need and deserve our support. I'm looking forward to getting to know our vendors throughout the week as I learn more about their dishes and what kinds of shrimp they are serving."

The press release also states the festival will be partnering with SeaD Consulting to DNA test shrimp sold on site.

Earlier this year, SeaD conducted genetic testing of seafood at 44 restaurants in South Baldwin that at the time said they serve "authentic Gulf wild-caught shrimp." As previously reported by GCM, the testing revealed that nearly half the restaurants were serving imported shrimp.

Last year, Alabama legislators enacted the Alabama Seafood Labeling Law, which requires establishments to disclose the country of origin and whether seafood is wild-caught or farm-raised. The Alabama Department of Public Health is tasked with enforcing this law, which prescribes penalties ranging from warnings to fines up to $1,000 for repeated violations. However, advocates for the law have urged patrons help enforce it by reporting violations.

The law went into effect Oct. 1 last year. Shrimp Fest ran Oct. 10-13. On Oct. 22, Shrimp Festival organizers released a statement concerning allegations that vendors at last year's festival were caught serving imported shrimp in their dishes.

"SeaD Consulting, a Texas business that has developed a rapid DNA testing mechanism, has claimed in a press release that four samples collected from five festival food vendors were not 'authentic Gulf wild-caught shrimp,'" the Oct. 22 release states.

SeaD Consulting was quoted as saying, "When restaurants and festivals intentionally mislabel their internationally imported shrimp as shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico, they harm consumers and the industry."

Festival Co-Chair Ginny Barnas, said, "We have, for years, included in our vendor contracts that only domestic shrimp are to be served at our festival, and this Texas-based company even acknowledges that fact in their release."

In the release, Barnas invited Dave Williams, SeaD owner, and the company itself to come back this year.

"We are a volunteer driven event. We have almost 100 volunteers that work year-round on this festival to make it one of the best festivals around, and hundreds more that volunteer their time during the weekend of the event," she said. "If Mr. Williams wants to come down here and volunteer his service and tests for us over four days, we'll welcome him."

The SeaD and Shrimp Festival partnership was funded by the Organized Seafood Association of Alabama (OSAA) this year.