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As Oil Threat Creeps Closer, a Rush on Seafood

Of all the gulf states, Louisiana also has the deepest financial stakes in keeping its fishing grounds healthy. Only about 20 percent of the seafood Americans eat is domestic, but the majority of that comes from either Alaska or Louisiana, said Albert Gaude, a fisheries agent with the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center in Baton Rouge. The shrimp industry alone, which produced 90 million pounds in 2008, brings in $1.3 billion a year.

So far, the portion of the Louisiana coast that is closed makes up only 23 percent of the fishing area, although it is on the exceptionally fertile east side of the Mississippi River. Only 6 of the state’s 30 oyster harvesting areas are temporarily off limits, just as a precaution.

But the talk here is about what happens when immeasurable gallons of oil and the estimated 100,000 gallons of dispersants BP plans to use to break it up work down into the food chain.

It is high spawning season now, and the water is filled with the larvae of fish, shrimp, oysters and crab. Dispersants and the oil droplets they leave behind can kill fish eggs, according to a 2005 National Academy of Sciences report cited in a study by ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit news organization.

Small-scale fishing in the gulf is already fragile, chipped away at by seafood farms, imports and hurricanes. Oyster beds full of oil, and shrimp with no plankton to eat because it has been poisoned by oil, could be more than the small operators can withstand.

The New York Times | 6 Maio 2010