I agree..dont think they would be readily available and marked as bait if
you couldn't use them.

I agree..dont think they would be readily available and marked as bait if
you couldn't use them.

This makes me think that these don't come from Gulf of Mexico. I could be very wrong, but it sure looks like they come from Nicaragua, although they do not say that all of there fleet is there.

From the Gulf King Seafood web site they have the following.

"Gulf KIng was founded in 1936 by Sydney Herndon and his father in Corpus Christi Texas as a seafood retailer & distributor. Soon after Sydney Herndon bought his first shrimp boat and by 1987 had the largest fleet of Shrimp Boats in the US with over 50 trawling vessels. In the mid to late '90s the company began moving the fleet to Nicaragua seeking year-round fishing and to secure a more long term fishing ground. Currently Gulf King vessels are still in Nicaragua catching wild caught Pink and White Shrimp in the Caribbean Sea. 4th generation shrimper Mark Herndon's company Gulf King Shrimp Exchange Inc. imports and markets the shrimp produced by the Gulf King fleet in Nicaragua and from select fleets trawling the waters of Honduras."
Gulf King Products

How on earth can it say product of USA and be from Nicaragua? Claiming it’s a product of USA is regulated by the FTC. You can’t claim it’s a product of USA if it’s from Nicaragua. I don’t understand what the confusion is all about.

https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/complying-made-usa-standard

Hmm, this seems to be bigger than a can of worms. It could still be a product of USA if the company catching them were stationed in the USA but catching them in international waters. And Caribbean Sea or waters off of Nicaragua are not exactly the Gulf of Mexico. Of which TP&W rules say it must be shrimp from the Gulf.

There are ways to distort certain things, like some chicken producers claiming their chickens do not have hormones or such. That gives the implication that others might be. However, unless one is doing that illegally, none are supposed to putting that in any of their chickens here in the USA.

Just because the name of the company implies "Gulf" in it, or that it is distributed from Aransas Point, or that it is a product of the USA, does not positively identify it as being Gulf of Mexico shrimp.

I will see if I can research this some Wed/Thurs night some.

I have used those all my life and they are in every bait store. I always assumed they were legal. I always keep the receipt from any bait I buy even worms but have been ask by wardens for my license but never a question about bait.