The vibrio bacteria have made its rounds on the east and gulf coasts in startling numbers this past summer. How does this affect tourism and seafood? Vibrio is a flesh-eating virus that is naturally occurring in salt and brackish waters; according to the CDC, 80,000 cases are reported in the US every year, 52,000 of those being attributed to contaminated food. Vibrio can be contracted by contaminated water getting into an open wound or by consuming raw or undercooked shellfish, especially oysters.
The Numbers
Between the years 2016-2024, vibrio cases in Georgia, South Carolina, Maine, Massachusetts, New York city, New York State, North Carolina, Virginia, Rhode Island, Florida, Texas, and Alabama have increased noticeably from 2020-2024, taking a dip from 2020-21 due to The COVID- 19 pandemic. The gulf coast state of Louisiana reported 17 hospitalizations with 4 patient deaths as of July 31st, 2025. 75% of the 17 reported wound exposure in coastal waters. As of July 14th, 2025, the Massachusetts Department of public health closed 20 beaches in the state due to high presence of the bacteria. In New York, 3 beaches were closed for swimming due to the excess bacteria. As of July 2025, 11 cases of vibrio were reported, 4 resulting in death. So… what does this mean for tourism?
Tourism
Coastal tourism is reliant on working waterfronts. If your waterfront’s contaminated and you profit off of coastal tourism, you can kiss your summer goodbye. The five gulf coast states of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida bring in a collective $20 billion to the industry, Alabama being valued at $3.2 billion annually. The primary reasons tourists visit the gulf coast is for beach access, seafood, gambling, and shopping. Vibrio outbreaks slash out the first two reasons. Flesh eating bacteria is a tourist turn-off and that is money being taken from beach, seafood, casino, and store employees. What does this mean for the seafood industry, exactly, because it’s not just beachside restaurants suffering from this.
Seafood
Contaminated water results in contaminated food. Animals in contaminated water, oysters especially, must be avoided at all costs. Oysters are filter feeders, meaning they take in the water around them and eat what’s left behind. Oysters in affected areas are soaked in the bacteria, a single oyster can contain as many as a million Vibrio vulnificus cells. The oyster fishery in the Gulf of Mexico accounts for more than half of the US oyster supply. If a vibrio outbreak were to hit the fishery, a lot of people would get sick and lose their jobs.
Why we should ALL care about this
It’s not only the east and gulf coasts that’s affected by this. In a July 11th press release, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) urged the public to avoid playing, surfing, and swimming in a handful of waters in the county due to excess bacteria. Santa Monica Pier is included on this list, a pier that averages 10 million visitors every summer which is money lost.. Seafood travels, half of the US’ oysters come from the Gulf of Mexico fishery, so it is not only gulf coasters at risk for vibrio. But WHY is this happening? Why are there more cases of vibrio being reported? Good old climate change, the cause for many environmental issues. Climate change is caused by human activities that trap greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere. According to Dr. Jim Oliver, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, “Open sea salt water has too high of a salinity rate for Vibrio vulnificus,” he explained. But when fresh water dilutes it, in the form of glaciers melting due to climate change the “conditions become more favorable.”
Wrap up
Over the summer of 2025, a flesh-eating bacteria called vibrio broke out on the United States east and gulf coasts. Between 2020 and 2024 more cases have been reported due to climate change and the public’s return to beaches after the COVID- 19 lockdowns. Vibrio not only harms people directly with its destructive nature but harms people’s livelihoods. Gulf coast states rely heavily on waterfronts. Watermen, beach, casino, and store employees suffer from the lack of business caused by beach closures. While vibrio cannot be eradicated, climate change is something we can help; we can cut back on fossil fuels and emissions as a society to indirectly save gulf coast industries. We are all connected in this world, if we would just practice what we preach we can right our wrongs as a society and save ourselves, from warming oceans, melting glaciers, vibrio, and ultimately, the loss of income and jobs.
