Oil Spill Effects Ripple Into Moral Fabric of Gulf Residents

Sabrina Canfield at Courthouse News reports:

At a scoping meeting last week in Biloxi, Miss., Vietnamese shrimpers said they have pulled up nets full of oil from the seafloor and have had to decide whether to report the oil to the Coast Guard, which would mean dumping their day’s catch, or pretend they don’t see the oil.[…]

Shrimpers in Biloxi also said that in places where shrimp have been plentiful, there are no shrimp now.
Fishermen in Pensacola and Panama City, Fla. brought a day’s catch to a scoping meeting to show that several fish had lesions. The fishermen were concerned the lesions were a result of the oil spill.

“Lesions do occur in fish,” Lliff said. “Typically, they are a low occurrence, but fishermen there are saying they are coming up every catch.”

Dr. Susan Shaw, an independent marine toxicologist and director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute in Blue Hill, Maine, said Tuesday in a telephone interview that from a toxicology standpoint, dispersed oil is more toxic than oil by itself.

Shaw said what was supposed to happen with Corexit didn’t happen.

What the hell happened when we have to force hard-working fishermen to choose between being honest and earning a living?? The effects of this oil catastrophe are not going away anytime soon. I encourage you to read the rest of Canfield’s article, lots there to depress and anger you!