Imposter Lobster

The phenomenon has been around for a long time. Marketers and even restaurateurs have been known to try to pass off something as Maine lobster when it really isn't. (Outside of Maine, of course - any in-state eatery that tried such chicanery probably wouldn't last long ).
Sometimes the deception is bizarre. I've heard stories of some restaurants that actually list "main lobster" (no "e") on their menus, as if people will recognize the sound of the phrase and not realize that, if it sounds appealing to them, it is because they want lobster from Maine.
But the issue goes beyond that. Sometimes there is actual Homarus americanus that is purported to be from Maine but isn't; and then there's meat that's purported to be Homarus americanus, but isn't.
The issue of Chile-bred "langostino lobster" has been around for years. Maine's $313 million Homarus americanus-catching industry has been fairly vocal in its criticism of the misleading appellation, as has Sen. Olympia Snowe.
And then this summer, another high-profile example of false labeling arose. The famous Zabar's deli in New York City has been exposed for doing pretty much the same thing, but not with langostino crustaceans. They were using Louisiana crayfish, not lobster, for a dish they made, packaged and sold as "lobster salad."
That is, until the media found out. A Times-Picayune reporter vacationing in Manhattan from New Orleans noticed and blogged about it. That attracted the attention of the Bangor Daily News, a newspaper well acquainted with Maine's signature seafood industry, which wrote an editorial about the discovery. Soon enough, the New York Times did a piece, and now Zabar's seems to have reconsidered its ill-conceived (and even more badly justified) marketing scheme. It now calls the same dish "seafare salad."
Seafood often gets caught under one name and then marketed as another. Selling dogfish as "cape shark" or "rock salmon," is one less-known example. On the other hand, it seems to be common knowledge that canned herring are called sardines and that cooked squid is served as calamari.
But putting "lobster" on any food that its maker knows doesn't contain any goes beyond marketing. It's not even a red herring. It's deliberate misrepresentation. And even that is often known by another name.