by L.B. Woodgate

Created on: May 17, 2010   Last Updated: May 18, 2010

"Nothing's Going to Come Back to This Area"

It is heartening to hear on Sunday that BP has successfully been able to connect a line to the massive leak off of Louisiana’s coast, coming out at 5000 feet below the water’s surface.   But the devastation this gusher has created on the local fishing and seafood industry will not so easily be contained. 

This connection only collects some of the oil spilling at rates some have measured at 48,000 barrels, some 2 million plus gallons a day and the Secretary of Interior, Ken Salazar says this “technique is not a solution to the problem, and it is not yet clear how successful it will be.” 

In the meantime people who work in the seafood industry are worried that the ramifications of this accident will last long after successful techniques do capture the spills flow.

Louisiana alone would lose much of the $2.4 billion that makes up that state’s sea food industry which consists of many small businesses of chefs, restaurant owners and seafood dealers.   

The other Gulf coastal states of Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and Florida will suffer similar consequences in varying degrees.  

At least a quarter of the nation's seafood is harvested from the Gulf Coast region and sales alone of seafood from this area totaled $660 million in 2008, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Hardest hit are perhaps the fishers of seafood.  This first line source of the seafood industry has already been prohibited by the federal government to fish in waters affected by the spill which currently covers roughly 6,800 square miles. 

Many of these fishermen depend upon the Gulf for their economic means of support.  The damage from the oil spill could deprive them of any seafood harvest this year if not longer. 

“This is peak spawning and nesting season for many species of fish, birds, turtles and marine mammals. Many species remain in set breeding areas during this time and there’s less instinct to move away from danger.” (10 animals most at risk from Gulf oil spill, by Julia Kumari Drapkin, GlobalPost, 4/29/10)

What marine life are able to escape direct contact with the oil from the spill may not avoid consuming contaminated microorganism, like plankton that are at the lowest end of the seafood chain. 

Along with this there are the chemical dispersants that BP is using to break up the oil in order to prevent it from drifting

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