After oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico shrimpers have returned to Louisiana waters for the first commercial season. But they are uncertain what crude may still be in the water and what price they’ll get for the catch if consumers worry about possible lingering effects from the massive BP spill. It is fact that the oil spill has put a crimp in the fishing industry in a state that ranks first in the nation in producing shrimp, blue crab, crawfish and oysters, a $318-million-a year business in Louisiana.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke planned to visit the state Monday to lunch with fishermen and talk to seafood industry representatives. Some fishermen worried about the oil-contaminated shrimp and scare consumers away again after prices crashed once already this summer. Louisiana shrimp prices rose soon after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers and triggering the spill that eventually spewed 206 million gallons of oil from BP’s blown-out well.
State and federal agencies have assured that the seafoods reaching the market are safe even though the demand dropped and prices crashed. Harlon Pearce, a seafood dealer and head of the state’s seafood promotion board, admits that a group trawled several areas, pulling up nets that held shrimp, mud, jellyfish or driftwood — all without the signs or telltale smell of oil.
Shrimpers also are concerned about how much they’ll be able to make on their product. Rusty Gaude, fishery agent for LSU Sea Grant Program, said that people are worried much about the resources but the price they ignore. More and more waters closed because of the spill are slowly reopening. However, shrimping remains forbidden in federal waters off Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and most of the catches have come off Texas and Florida, said Roy Crabtree, the regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service’s southeast region.
