Oil and price worries as Louisiana shrimpers start season

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Oil, Price Worries As La. Shrimpers Start Season

Seafood Rigorously Tested For Oil Remnants

CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer

POSTED: 11:29 am CDT August 15, 2010
UPDATED: 7:15 am CDT August 16, 2010

NEW ORLEANS -- Shrimpers returned to Louisiana waters Monday for the first commercial season since the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, 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.


The 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.


Perhaps the biggest fear is that some fisherman might try to sell oil-contaminated shrimp and scare consumers away again after prices crashed once already this summer

"If you see oily shrimp, you got to throw them back over. Go somewhere else. It's all you can do. And you hope everyone else does the same," said Dewayne Baham, 49, a shrimper from Buras.

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http://www.wdsu.com/gulf-oil-spill/24638296/detail.html

 

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Re: Oil and price worries as Louisiana shrimpers start season

Fall shrimp season opens Monday to few shrimpers, lots of worry

Published: Monday, August 16, 2010, 8:45 PM

Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune

Excerpts:

Perhaps the most striking thing about Monday's opening of the fall inshore shrimp season was how much remained closed.

...

"The last thing in the world that I'd want to do is promote that our seafood isn't any good," said Marty Nunez, a shrimp buyer in Yscloskey who is staying closed because the factory to which he sells wasn't accepting more shrimp, saying it couldn't sell what it had in stock. "But I just don't know if it's safe, and I feel like they're trying to say 'It's OK, it's OK, it's OK, it's (the oil) not out there anymore."

...

Rocky Ditcharo, who runs D. Ditcharo Seafood in Buras, said he was somewhat skeptical of the openings but didn't want to lose his loyal fishers to other docks.

"I think they should have left the season closed, let us get the waters cleaned up better than what they are, and then we could have marketed it a lot better and quicker, instead of trying to rush it on people," he said. "But if they say it's safe to eat, safe to go catch, then I'm going to go buy the product. I'm not going to tell my boats they can't go out."


Full text:
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/08/fall_shrimp_season_opens_monda.html