[StBernard] Chalmette oyster fishermen among eight convicted of mislabeling oyster sacks

[Westley Annis]

Chalmette oyster fishermen among eight convicted of mislabeling oyster sacks

  By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
on March 19, 2013 at 6:10 PM, updated March 19, 2013 at 6:23 PM Print

Eight oyster fishermen, including one from Chalmette, on Tuesday (March 19) entered a no contest plea for several health and oyster violations in a Vermilion Parish courtroom. The other seven men were from Texas.

Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries agents observed several boats coming into the dock in Intracoastal City in July with sacks of oysters from Southwest Pass labeled to be shucked and processed. However, agents later observed the fishermen change the tags on the sacks of oysters to indicate that the oysters could be consumed raw when offloading the sacks from their boats.

The mislabeled sacks of oysters then were loaded onto a truck destined for Florida before the agents intercepted the shipment.
 The agents seized a total of 495 sacks of oysters and returned them to the water

Heliodoro Gonzalez-Bocanegra, 43, of Chalmette, and the seven Texas men, pleaded no contest for violating the sanitation code for logbook and refrigeration requirements, adulterating or misbranding seafood, violating interstate commerce regulations and failing to fill out oyster tags correctly. The judge ordered each man to pay a $1,922 fine.