BEAUFORT, S.C. () — Have you ever sat down at a restaurant and wondered if the seafood you planned to order came directly from local waters?

That’s the goal of a new program that will soon hit tables in Beaufort.

The “Only from Our Waters” program will highlight businesses in the area that serve genuine, local or American-harvested seafood.

“We developed this program to honor them, also create economic activity and focus on that local flavor,” stated Ashlee Houck, the President and CEO of the Beaufort Area Hospitality Association (BAHA). “Beaufort is known for its shrimp, its oysters, crabs, and the local seafood here.”

Craig Reaves, the owner of Sea Eagle Market and a major seafood distributor to several local restaurants and businesses, mentioned that this program would help boost his business. He’s been involved in the creation and implementation of the program.

“It’s great that they’re (BAHA) concerned for the long-term vision of the seafood industry, and specifically the shrimping industry,” Reaves said.

Many shrimpers have noted that about 60% of seafood consumed in the United States is imported from overseas. Reaves indicated that this situation negatively affects small family-owned businesses that are striving to provide fresh seafood to locals and companies.

“Good seafood ain’t cheap and cheap seafood ain’t good,” said Reaves.

Reaves said that many coastal restaurants talk about working with the local industry, but don’t put words into action.

“There’s a lot of attention on imported shrimp and how much fraud in restaurants that are claiming local but using imported Seafoods,” Reaves said.

Nick Borreggine, the owner of Scratch Italian restaurant and Shellring Ale Works, said he’s been involved with the process and creation of the program alongside Reaves and Houck.

“We want to support our friends and colleagues and our local seafood fishermen, shrimpers in this case. They are our neighbors. They provide a quality of life that is unmatched here.”

He said this program matters because the fresh seafood caught and served locally, is a representation of what Beaufort has to offer.

“The Indonesian farm raised shrimp that that is pumped full of antibiotics is not the same quality, so if a tourist comes into town has some of those shrimps, they’re going to walk away from Beaufort and say, ‘I don’t see what’s so special about this,’” said Borreggine. “That’s not what we want. We want to put our best foot forward. A rising tide helps all boats. In this case, it’s our local shrimpers.”

The program will place a logo on a menu or door fronts of restaurants and businesses. That will prove if they are serving genuine local, or American-harvested seafood.

“Our consumers want local shrimp.  So not only is it our responsibility to give them that, but it’s truth in advertising. We want to make sure that it is local shrimp,” said Borreggine.

Houck said the goal is to not only support shrimpers, but Beaufort’s overall economy.

People want to support local fishermen. They want to support American caught seafood. It’s really important and vital to America because a lot of the areas within our community have been built upon local seafood,” said Houck. “Destin, Florida is one of them. The Maine harbor. You know, so many various areas were built on being a fishing town. So, there is definitely a piece of those gears that make our economy run.”

As of now, the plan for the program is to start with just shrimp, and then eventually branch out to other local seafood caught in local or American waters. They said the hope is to have the program fully rolled out and on menus by October of this year, just in time for Beaufort’s annual Shrimp Festival.