Oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico grounded many fishermen and now BP hired them to protect the Louisiana shoreline from the massive oil sneaking toward its marshes and beaches. But just who gets the job is a source of brewing tensions among these fishermen.
New report states that each day several fishermen pile onto boats to lay reels of white and orange booms. In St. Bernard Parish, a crew member can make $36 an hour and a captain can make $46, plus $650 a day for the use of their boats. According to a local fisherman it’s so messed up it’s not even funny, a person can’t wait 30 to 40 days to go work.
BP oil spill has affected tens of thousands of fishermen in Louisiana alone — there were 11,191 commercial fishing permits issued in the state in 2009. George Barisich, president of the United Commercial Fishermen’s Association, said that the ocean-faring containment jobs are not plentiful enough to help these fishermen. He informed that the frustration stretches to other locations, including Plaquemines Parish, where Acy Cooper, vice president of the Louisiana Shrimp Assn., says that only about a quarter of the men who want to work are getting hired.
he further told that BP, which had promised to pay each fisherman $5,000 a month for compensation, is dallying on handing out checks. And they said that men who haven’t fished in years are getting paid to work on prevention teams. BP spokesman Bryan Ferguson said 4,700 loss-of-income claims had been filed, and that the company pays up to $5,000 a month on these claims. There are more than 70 workers processing the claims, and processors are making payments as quickly as they can.
