The DMR Seafood Marketing Program has kicked off a campaign to promote Mississippi Gulf Safe Seafood that has included an egret named Elvis and celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse.
The Gulf Safe Seafood campaign is an ongoing awareness drive to send out the message that Gulf seafood remains safe, is only harvested from open, regulated waters, is tested extensively and is of the highest quality. As part of the campaign, DMR has printed the Mississippi Seafood Industry Directory and a 2011 calendar featuring recipes using Gulf Safe Seafood.
The message can be seen throughout Mississippi and across the country on billboards, banners, posters and restaurant tabletop displays, as well as in television and magazine ads in the Newcomers and Visitors Guide for South Mississippi, Parents and Kids Magazine, Gulf Coast Angler and Gulfscapes. Gulf Safe Seafood brochures explain the seafood testing and sampling process and show how Mississippi seafood compares to the FDA levels of concern for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
A Name the Gulf Safe Egret contest tapped Coast children ages 12 and under to find a name for the shrimp-eating snowy egret featured on 13 Mississippi Gulf Safe Seafood billboards across the Coast.
Tyler Fulmer, 11, of Biloxi and Conner Smothers, 12, of Diamondhead both submitted the winning entry, “Elvis.”
The Seafood Marketing Program has taken the Gulf Safe message to local events—including the Great Mississippi Seafood Cook-Off, Gulf Coast Charter Boat Challenge, Cruisin’ the Coast, Chefs of the Coast, the Billfish Rendezvous, the Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo’s Fourth of July in Fall, the Peter Anderson Festival, the Mississippi Gulf Coast Blues Festival, the Biloxi Seafood Festival, Christmas in the Pass, the Gautier Mullet Festival and the Blessing of the Fleet—as well as on the road to Chicago, Boston, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Baltimore, Houston, Baton Rouge, and to such events as the annual Viking Classic golf tournament in Madison, Miss., where Lagasse and other professional chefs used Gulf Safe Wild-Caught Mississippi Shrimp in culinary demonstrations.
The Seafood Marketing Program also joined forces with the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport, Mississippi Gulf Coast Tourism, Bass Pro and Branson AirExpress to host a Mississippi Gulf Coast Seafood Cookout and press conference at the Branson, Mo., airport in September.
Plans for 2011 include printing a new recipe book for Gulf Safe Seafood and attending many trade shows and festivals, including the American Culinary Federation conferences in Atlanta, New Orleans and Dallas; the Charleston, S.C., Food and Wine Expo; the International Boston Seafood Show; the Biloxi Crawfish Festival; the National Restaurant Association’s American Food Fair in Chicago; the Biloxi Shrimp Festival and Blessing of the Fleet; the Southwest Foodservice Expo in Dallas; the Louisiana Restaurant Association Expo and the Great American Seafood Cook-Off in New Orleans; the Oklahoma Restaurant and Convention Expo in Oklahoma City; the Mid-Atlantic Food, Beverage and Lodging Expo in Baltimore; and many others.
Source: Mississippi Department of Marine Resources