Restaurants adjust seafood menus

Local restaurateurs are casting their nets wide in search of affordable seafood from sources outside the Gulf of Mexico, where many in the fishing industry face restrictions from the spreading BP oil spill.

Prices on seafood - especially oysters and shrimp - have surged as Gulf Coast fishermen's fortunes have ebbed since BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in April. The explosion killed 11 crewmen and blew out a well, which has been spewing petroleum into the Gulf ever since.

Oil has spread for miles, and contamination has prevented people in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida from fishing some of the waters around their states. Added demand on other seafood markets has increased prices.

Tim DeGroff, a chef at Porterhouse Grill in downtown Athens, took oysters off his menu last week, both because of soaring prices and because customers grew wary of seafood from Gulf waters.

"I know that there's still product available, but I wanted to avoid quality issues as well as pricing issues," DeGroff said.

Most of the shrimp served at Porterhouse Grill comes from farms in Mexico, but even those prices have increased by a few dollars because of rising demand for non-Gulf seafood.

"Some shrimp prices are rising and that's across the board," DeGroff said.

DeGroff ran the former Athens Seafood Co. and saw a similar spike in prices after Hurricane Katrina disturbed oyster beds and swamped the shrimping business in the Gulf.

"My reaction to a lot of it is just to stay away from those products for a little while," he said. "There's plenty of seafood out there that doesn't come from that area of the world."

Even without the Gulf Coast label, prices for other seafood jumped about 20 percent because of the decreased supply, said Robert Burch, part owner of Gnat's Landing on Baxter Street.

"There's definitely been an increase (in prices) across the board," Burch said.

Gnat's Landing still serves Gulf oysters, but that likely will change in the next month, because Burch expects prices to go even higher and availability to keep shrinking.

"Gulf oysters are the best. They are kind of world-renowned," he said.

Oyster lovers still will find their fa

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