Officials continue to test seafood, trying to keep La. seafood safe

It's a strenuous process and very often messy but choosing just the right size and amount of oysters is key in making sure Louisiana seafood is safe to eat.
This is one good step, these kind of samples to show people really good solid data," said Brian Levina, from the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Proof by way of scientific analysis, starts here in the open waterways that feed into the Gulf, where Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries agents collect the samples.

“The lab is looking for certain kinds of hydrocardbons, but essentially those things that we would find in that crude oil,” said Levina.

Fortunately, biologists didn't find any traces of oil here in Drum Bay, nor Treasure pPass where they trawled for shrimp.

"We have the same issues as commercial fishermen sometimes it takes longer to catch sometimes have to go further to do it and well get around a pound or so," said Levina.

Picking through the catch officials find, sometimes a blue crab, but a lot more shrimp. This is done over and over again until the biologists find what they need and toss the rest to the birds.

Officials say it's a process that is repeated daily from Lake Charles to the Mississippi state line but not in areas inundated with oil.

“There are some issues with doing that if it is heavy on the surface then you’re just getting it all over the animals anyway and it’s not a true representation on whether or not, it's in the fish tissue or if it was on everything else, that was next to the fish," said Levina.

It's an effort to fight a national perception that all Louisiana seafood is tainted.

“There isn’t going to be a product out there that isn’t safe for them, there is even without oil spill there is testing,” said Levina.