Over the weekend I read an interesting story in Outside magazine titled "The Gumbo Chronicles". It's about a man who wanted to see if the BP Gulf oil spill has been as successfully cleaned up as the hype says it has. To find out, he went to Bayou Lafourche (pronounced la-foosh) just below New Orleans to see how the oystermen, crabbers, and shrimpers in the Gulf and in the bayous are doing these days. He wanted to buy the ingredients for gumbo and see for himself how healthy and tasty the catch is now. He found out. Contrary to what the federal, state, and local governments and chamber's of commerce, not to mention BP, are telling us, things are not as rosy as they would like us to believe.
The proof....catches are less than half of what they were pre-spill. And the size and quality of the sea creatures is pitiful, too. Most of the fishermen have gone out of business or are just hanging on, most days not even catching enough to cover expenses. One crab fisherman used to run 400 cages and he now runs 700, yet his catch is down from 20 pans a day to 13, and dropping weekly. Similar stories were told by oystermen and shrimpers, too. Their numbers don't lie. So why don't we see this at our grocery stores? Because most of the "fresh seafood" sold here is imported from Asia.
What about the $20B fund BP set aside to compensate those affected by the spill? Only about a quarter of it has been paid out, and BP is arguing that since things are now OK, future payments should be curtailed. OK? Really?
Here's my point: We're in a "no-win" situation. We need more oil in order to escape the grip of the mid-east producers who are robbing us blind. Yes, we need something besides oil, but for now that's pretty much our only option. Over time we'll have other options, but for today that's pretty much it. We've been drilling in the Gulf of Mexico all my life without serious problems, so we know it can be done. What it takes is REAL OVERSIGHT by regulators who are not bought and paid for by those being regulated. And let's not kid ourselves, that's exactly what's happening.
The wealthy, the powerful, get what they want from Washington, and I'm blaming both parties in this fiasco. We need to allow drilling (and develop an alternative energy source ASAP and mandate conservation, too), but do it with multiple safeguards overseen 24/7 by inspectors who aren't chummy with the oil companies.
I'm not holding my breath for that to happen. Neither are the Gulf fishermen. What a mess we're in.
S
Our crab catches are down in the Chesapeake Bay as well although the Chesapeake Bay foundation is doing a relatively decent job of educating and replenishing the bay one oyster/crab at a time.
ReplyDeleteThe little bastards are coming back with a vengeance. I got pinched more than a dozen times last year during one two week stretch.
That shit hurts. It also is a wonderful sign about the return of the crab....
I was recently researching mini submersibles for a story I'm working on and according to experts, and the video they taped while exploring the seabed in the gulf, there's at least 800 square miles down there covered in four to five inches of oil. Everything down there is dead, even the sea slugs. I don't believe anything BP has to say. These videos should be shown to those people who foolishly believe that the solution to our energy woes is to "Drill, baby, drill!"
ReplyDeleteOne reason I'm emotionally tapped out on the subject is because it is same old same old.
ReplyDeleteWe should have listened harder to Jimmy C when he told us to put on a sweater to save oil. Hell, that was about 40 years ago now, and nothing has changed, except maybe for the worse.
fin
I agree with you - for right now, we need oil. We also need to explore other options (where are the natural gas powered vehicles, with natural gas prices hitting rock bottom?) and we need to conserve. It still burns me that Bush and Cheney said conserving energy doesn't really do anything..."it just makes you feel good."
ReplyDeleteDamn right, I feel good every time I compare my Honda Fit's gasoline use to that of an SUV.