oil slick

Frank Fusco

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Mountain Home, Arkansas
The oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is shaping up to be an historic event. This preventable situation could threaten the very existence of New Orleans in ways storm Katrina didn't begin to approach.
I don't believe the tourist industry would survive is restaurants had to serve shrimp from China or if the fishermen had to abandon their boats. The economic ripple effect is beyond calculation.
Plus volumes could be written about the environmental effect.
Sad beyond expression. :(
 
This is from a chef in New Orleans:

I grew up around fishermen, and now at Restaurant August and all six of my restaurants I use only fish and seafood from our waters: 500 pounds of shrimp and at least 100 pounds of crabmeat a day from our sweet crabs, and I sell a good 500 pounds of finfish a day, from cobia to grouper to snapper to speckled trout to redfish, flounder, and sheepshead. It’s all from our waters. We haven’t seen a decrease in supply yet, but next week we expect it, because of where the slick has moved: the port of Venice, Louisiana, where oil is starting to wash ashore, is a major hub of seafood in and out of the Gulf. ..

All those fishermen are going to be out of work for some time to come. It's pretty sad. It'll be a long time before the shellfish beds recover. Hurricanes, cheap imports, now this. Tough times all around.

Thanks,

Bill
 
I receive a E-MAIL this morning asking me to warn all of mine friends about the oil slick if they don't know about it already
 
Spill & Slaick are bad, true but the press and the OMG aspect is getting to be another chance to increase costs. Especially Gas "Going to reach $4 per this summer, :(
 
Here is some info from down here:

As long as it stays on the other side of the mouth of the River, our main shrimping grounds will be fine. We will see a decrease. Crabs should be OK if it stays out of Lake Pontchartrain. Oysters will take a big hit. That side of the river supplies a huge percentage of our oysters. In addition 80% of oysters eaten in the USA come from LA or MS....you will see prices rise if there are any to eat. LA is either 1 or 2 in landings for blue crab, shrimp and oysters. This will effect the whole nation.



Shipping is important not only to us but to you guys in the midwest. Almost half of the USA grain exports come through the MS River. Much of our imports also.



Just hope and pray they can stop it.
 
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how do this slick compare to the slick in Alaska which is still being clean -up
 
how do this slick compare to the slick in Alaska which is still being clean -up

Ray,

That's a tough one. Depends on who you ask. Here's one estimate:

The Gulf Coast spill will have eclipsed the Exxon Valdez in terms of total gallons of oil before the weekend is over -- making it the largest oil spill in U.S. history -- according to calculations made by oceanographer Ian MacDonald after studying aerial Coast Guard photos taken earlier in the week.

MacDonald, a professor at Florida State University who counts "oil and gas development" among his areas of expertise, stopped short of comparing the Deepwater Horizon spill to that of the Alaskan oil tanker, but said Saturday, "The spill is growing. I'm comfortable saying that the size and extent of this slick is 10 million gallons."


Of course, nobody's got a meter a mile down, where it's coming out of the well. Some estimates are lower. Here's another:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-measure-20100502,0,1279704.story

It's pretty clear BP wasn't, shall we say, exactly forthcoming with their early estimates, but maybe they didn't even know. In any case, if in 10 days it's already nearly as big as the Alaska spill, and it takes (as some are saying) 90 days to cap situations like this.... well, I'm no math major, but it doesn't sound good.

Thanks,

Bill
 
Thanks for the update, Rob. :thumb: I hope they get a handle on it quickly, and the damage is less than expected.
 
I don't eat seafood, so it won't affect me at all... but to those who do, the price will likely go thru the roof for whatevers' taken from that area. also, this spill should open the eyes of many people to the fact that oil is slowly killing our environment, either thru spills, or thru air polution.like I've been saying for a long time...it's been 60+ yrs since the 2nd world war,where OIL was the reason Hitler went after Russia(for the most part). we've had SIXTY years to develope an alternative, a SAFE alternative and we've just let it go. Status Quo was acceptable, leading to the world demad we're facing today. and with MORE off-shore drilling being planned, we can expect MORE of these disaters to occur. I feel sorry, not for the fisherman, but for the occupants of the oceans. it seems as tho mankind can't keep from destroying the earths' wildlife..it seems that regardless of how we try not to do it, we do it....the fisherman CAN get other jobs if they had too..the fish don't have that luxury....:rolleyes:
 
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