Seafood mislabeling is common in both domestic and international markets. Studies on seafood fraud often report high rates of mislabeling (e.g., >70%), but these studies have been limited to a single sampling year, which means it is difficult to assess the impact of stricter governmental truth-in-labeling regulations. We used DNA barcoding to assess seafood labeling in 26 sushi restaurants in Los Angeles over 4 years. Seafood from 3 high-end grocery stores were also sampled (n = 16) in 2014. We ordered 9 common sushi fish from menus, preserved tissue samples in 95% ethanol, extracted the genomic DNA, amplified and sequenced a portion of the mtDNA COI gene, and identified the resulting sequence to known fish sequences from the National Center for Biotechnology Information nucleotide database. We compared DNA results with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) list of acceptable market names and retail names. We considered sushi-sample labels that were inconsistent with FDA names mislabeled. Sushi restaurants had a consistently high percentage of mislabeling (47%; 151 of 323) from 2012 to 2015, yet mislabeling was not homogenous across species. Halibut, red snapper, yellowfin tuna, and yellowtail had consistently high (<77%) occurrences of mislabeling on menus, whereas mislabeling of salmon and mackerel were typically low (>15%). All sampled sushi restaurants had at least one case of mislabeling. Mislabeling of sushi-grade fish from high-end grocery stores was also identified in red snapper, yellowfin tuna, and yellowtail, but at a slightly lower frequency (42%) than sushi restaurants. Despite increased regulatory measures and media attention, we found seafood mislabeling continues to be prevalent.

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Aim To improve our understanding of how parasitism interacts with geographical range expansions by quantifying diversity and abundance of parasites in 25 populations of a large marine snail, Kellet's whelk (Kelletia kelletii), throughout its historical and recently expanded range, which are separated by a well‐known biogeographical boundary. Location California coast (western North America). Methods Parasitological examinations were conducted on 199 whelks from 25 subtidal reefs throughout its expanded and historical ranges. We calculated infection risk, parasite intensity, and parasite species diversity. Abiotic (temperature, latitude, distance from range limit) and biotic (host density) variables were analysed as potential drivers of differential parasitism between expanded‐ and historical‐range populations. Results Compared with historical‐range whelks, expanded‐range whelks were 20% as likely to be infected by parasites, and those that were infected had 6% the number of individual parasites. On average, expanded‐range whelks had 14% the number of parasite species than the historical‐range whelks. The marked decrease in species richness of parasites infecting expanded‐range whelks was only partly explained by the low numbers of parasites. The reduced parasite abundance and diversity in the expanded‐range whelks was not explained by the examined abiotic factors or by whelk density. Main conclusions Expanded‐range populations of Kellet's whelk experience substantially lower parasite abundance and diversity than the historical‐range populations, despite relatively poor demographic performance. The reduced parasitism observed resembles the enemy escape typically characterizing invasive species. A possible explanation for the observed ‘parasite escape’ is that the biogeographical boundary limits the movements or drives the low abundance of other host species (elasmobranchs) required to complete the life cycles of the ‘missing’ parasites. We suggest that parasite escape may generally characterize range‐margin expansions and be important in permitting expansions into what may otherwise be marginal habitats. This parasite escape may directly counter the spread of infectious diseases associated with global warming‐induced range shifts.