The Oil Spill and us.

The spill is really going to have a long term effect on our fish supply.

I think it's a little early to do any long-term hand wringing. Let's not forget that they issued the same doomsday message after the Exxon Valdez fiasco, and look what actually happened.

The most immediate fisheries problem will be taking care of the fishermen who cannot ply their trade. That will effect availability, in the short term. But, apparently, with the just-announced agreement, they'll at least be taken care of financially, so that once the spill is controlled and cleaned up they can go right back to work.

Personally, I'm glad to see that an independent group will administer BP's new $20-billion compensation fund. I shudder to think how the money would be wasted if FEMA was in charge. It certainly wouldn't go to provide aid to those who need it.

Fact is, based on my own experience after the recent flooding disaster, the only thing that's changed with FEMA since Katrina is that they've gotten a better PR agency. But as far as providing aid, it's still got its own agenda, and, apparently, that doesn't include actually helping people who suffered. I'm convinced the acryonym stands for Fool Everyone Maybe Always.

 

Please try to leave discussion of opinions as to the response of the government out of this. No politics has always been a rule here. I do think a discussion of the possible effects of the spill on our industry has merit though, so it may be left open.

 

It's already affecting the seafood industry right now I saw on the news this morning where a lot of fishermen are basically dry docked because of the oil leak and the 20 Billion?

No one is seeing any of it as of yet.

And the dispersal agent that they are using is more or less causing the oil to stay below the surface of the water and it's coming to shore anyway despite any and all so called efforts.

The fact that this entire thing happened is a down right shame on BP and the US government due to drilling regulations.

 

I agree with you, Ed. There's no need to discuss the politics or who is to blame, though. Not here, anyways.
 

Highlander, as I already said, please limit the discussion to how it specifically relates to the foodservice industry.
 

 

seafood, gulf fish......restaurants in NO and along the Gulf Coast, fishermen, crabbers, eventually making headways inland......

 

Other than the rather obvious fact that the spill's repercussions on gulf fishing will be very, very, very bad in general and worse than that in certain specific areas we don't have a really good understanding of what, exactly, will happen where, and how bad things will be.

No one's ever created fractionating columns which run hundreds and even thousands of feet -- which is pretty much what the plume is -- while the "volcano" itself creates a 5000' column.   Exactly where each fraction will concentrate after being carried by currents which go in all sorts of directions depending on depth, microclime, and so on... All I can say is, "oy."

When I was an undergrad, I took all of the pre-med chemistry classes, which doesn't make me anything more than barely literate as to the chemistry.  And I'm certainly no oceanologist or biologist either -- again, not beyond bare biological literacy.  I'm no math genius either, but that's mostly what I did study and have a math appreciation of the difficulties of coming up with answers to fluid dynamics and "chaos" statistics problems which contain huge numbers of variables and elements.  This time, mega-oy.

What I'm getting is that no one really knows how long it's going to take for the fisheries to return once BP  or the government or whomever figures out hows to cap the leak; and anyone who says they do is trying to sell you something.

Furthermore, we're just as hazy on the pure cause and effect health effects (eat so much of this and that will happen) and even dimmer when it comes to the more stochastic epedimiology (i.e., that cancer rates will rise by X%, doesn't mean that a specific tumor on a specific person was actually "caused" by a given event).  The Gulf wasn't exactly what you'd call pure, anyway.

So... it's all very confusing and frightening.  I hope the well gets capped, and I hope the effects are less extreme and don't linger as long as I fear.   I also hope that the agencies responsible for disseminating information do that as information becomes available.  I'm neither a mushroom nor a child, and don't appreciate being left in the dark.

Bottom Line:  For now we know very little other than the short term problems with our seafood supply will be big and expensive, and we can also be assured there will be all sorts unexpected consequences.

BDL