Oil disaster may be "death blow" to $2.4 billion fishing industry in the Delta

[Bluebear]

..."These estuaries are (sic?) the richest in the country -- shrimp, oysters, crabs," said Ryan Lambert, a director of the Louisiana Charter Boat Association and owner of Cajun Fishing Adventures. "In the long term, as the oil comes in and shuts the fishery down ... it's going to wipe all that out."

Louisiana's coastal wetlands support a $2.4 billion fishing industry by providing breeding areas and nurseries for fish, crabs and shrimp. They also set the table for migrating waterfowl and other birds. The spill is likely to affect this and the next generation of wildlife because it is spawning season, and oil kills fish larvae. It is being seen as an ecological disaster.

It is an economic catastrophe, too. Shrimpers have been waiting through the long months of one of the toughest winters on record for their harvest to begin this month. In the past few weeks, they have been pouring money into boats and equipment for a season that usually starts in mid-May and lasts through summer.

"We save money all year to make it through the winter," said Kip Marquize, a Delta shrimper for two decades. "Right before the season, we take the money we've saved and sink it into our equipment. This disaster, it couldn't have come at a worse time."

If the ecological consequences are as bad as the fishermen fear, they say it could deliver a death blow to their struggling industry.

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/05/03/03greenwire-gulf-coast-fishermen-fear-that-they-will-be-le-60614.html

[Bluebear]

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