Despite the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Tuscaloosa seafood restaurants, Chuck’s Fish and Wintzell’s Oyster House continue to serve Gulf Coast seafood.

President Barack Obama declared seafood from the Gulf of Mexico safe to eat at a June 18 press briefing in Theodore, Ala.

Obama said that government inspections and monitoring of Gulf Coast seafood would be stepped up through efforts of the Food and Drug Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“The main concern [when the oil spill occurred] was our ability to obtain fresh fish and the safety of it,” said Cris Eddings, managing partner of Chuck’s Fish. “We are not going to be able to obtain fish if it’s not safe because the government is so involved and [parts of the Gulf] are regulated.”

Bob Omainsky, president of Wintzell’s Oyster House, said there is a lot of “media hype” concerning the quality of Gulf seafood.

“I can assure you at this specific time that seafood is being inspected even more diligently than before,” Omainsky said. “We are only dealing with FDA-approved suppliers … [and] that is not going to change.”

Chuck’s Fish has continued to acquire its seafood from Gulf waters.

“[Our seafood] is still all from the Gulf. Nothing has really changed,” Eddings said. “It’s just the means and how we are obtaining it.”

The website for Chuck’s Fish states, “All of our seafood comes from our wholesale market in Destin, Florida. The fish is strictly ‘hook and line’ caught, by either our own boats or boats we have contracts with.”

Eddings said that while Chuck’s is still using some of its own boats to catch seafood, many of the restaurant’s boats are being used to clean up the oil spill on the Florida Gulf Coast.

For the seafood they cannot obtain, Chuck’s buys from other wholesalers on the Gulf.

Omainsky said Wintzell’s continues to get a “fair amount” of its seafood from the Gulf, although their fish comes from other regions such as the Pacific.

“We continue to get our oysters from the coast of Texas that’s not affected and areas of west Louisiana that’s not being affected,” said Omainsky. “We get a lot of shrimp from the Gulf that’s so far south of where the oil spill is that it’s not an issue.”

Eddings said Chuck’s has not experienced much of a price increase from their wholesalers. He said the price of fish remains about the same, while the price of shrimp has gone up slightly.

Wintzell’s, however, has experienced a “dramatic price increase” from their suppliers, according to Omainsky.

“We want you to know that it is possible that there may be times of interrupted product from our suppliers,” Bob Donlon, Wintzell’s CEO, wrote in a May 4 letter to customers posted on the Wintzell’s website.

“At this time, we have discontinued half-price dozen oysters during happy hour,” Donlon said. “However, we have added 25 cent wings to happy hour for the near term.”

Aside from Wintzell’s discontinuation of half-priced happy hour oysters, neither Chuck’s nor Wintzell’s has taken anything off of its menu and menu prices have remained the same.

Both restaurants assure patrons that the quality of their seafood is not going to change, regardless of the circumstances.

“We pride ourselves on fresh seafood,” Eddings said. “As opposed to resorting to something that’s not fresh — something frozen — I would take it off the menu if it wasn’t fresh.”

Omainsky said Wintzell’s is committed to serving a high quality product to its guests.

“We are never going to compromise quality,” Omainsky said.