Gulf Fisheries Brought To Standstill

[DoYouEverWonder]

Sept 10, 2005

U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said Friday his agency has declared a formal fishery failure in the Gulf of Mexico due to the devastation following Hurricane Katrina. The affected area includes the Florida Keys, and from Pensacola, Fla., to the Texas border.

According to the NOAA Web site, the extent of the damage to Gulf fishing industries is not yet known, but fishing in the region has shut down. NOAA said it is working with states to assess damage to the 15 major fishing ports and the 177 seafood processing facilities in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. NOAA said are 432 federally permitted fishing vessels in Alabama; 3,738 in Florida; 1,033 in Louisiana, and 351 in Mississippi.

The declaration makes federal relief funds available to assess the impacts, restore the fisheries, prevent future failure, and assist fishing communities' recovery efforts after a natural disaster, NOAA said.

<snip>

The Gulf industry from New Orleans east to the Florida panhandle has been hard hit, but oyster grounds and packing houses to the west of New Orleans through Texas survived.

http://www.wdsu.com/hurricanes/4887230/detail.html

[tsuki]

1. Don't buy Mexican seafood from the gulf. They will not observe

the ban. And from what I hear is being pumped into the Gulf, you don't want it.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. exactly. it will take several seasons to clean itself

but this is a direct result of trying to fight Ole Miss. You build a dyke up north, and you stay dry. Make nice farms. Force major flooding down stream.
So, the Army Corpse builds even more and higher dykes downstream. and the problem is compounded.
Finally, you get to NO, and the dyke building becomes absolutely necessary, but absolutely nuts. This was a marsh that was constantly replenished by mud and run off from up north. Once you stop that, and the ground dries out, it will subside. As it did here.

So the natural cleansing action of the marshes, the natural ebb and flow of the Mississippi, and the sudden impact of oil, gas, pesticides, raw sewage, chemical run-offs from factories, and even household chemicals (some of which are NASTY) and the soup you have is nothing less than poison. a whole Lake George of poison.

I wonder when, a few years from now, when we realize just how hurried and rushed our pumping was, given the massive die-offs of formerly productive fishing and shellfish beds, we realize that we needed to treat the pumped water BEFORE pumping it into Lake P.

[pushycat]

6. Treat floodwater before removal

The same thought occurred to me too. Maybe it is still possible because I read the lake water keeps flooding back in places. Seems like the bad stuff gets all stirred being pumped into the lake, and then finds its way back again. Concentrations of chemicals in unknown combinations...seems very dangerous NOT to do something as it gets pumped out. I suppose all wildlife will perish.

[tsuki]

9. We had 70 porpoise on the beach before Katrina. In my youth,

we would swim between the first & second sandbar and play with the porpoise (carefully.) No fear of sharks invading your space. If you were in the bay, or around Shell Island, they would shadow you and tease you as you ran your boat. They are gone.

Cousteau said that we were killing the Gulf in the 1970s. What are we doing now? Red Tide bloom will be god awful next year with all the nitrates. If you have allergies, stay away.

[Tace]

2. This Disaster Is 100 Times Worse Than Most Anyone Thinks

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. For the Gulf it certainly is

I'd like to go back and see the data from the Persian Gulf after GW1, when Saddam dumped all the oil in there. What did they do and how long did it take to recover?

[Binka]

5. Bush is Hazelwood Think Exxon Valdez

The little boots ran his tanker into land. The waters of the South will be swamped in toxins for at least a decade.

[CountAllVotes]

7. I agree

Far more to come than the fishing industry I am very sad to have to say. :( TOXIC is the word! T O X I C!

:kick:

[alarimer]

8. It may never recover

Fishing is a marginal occupation with the cost of fuel being so high. People might just quit rather than wait it out. I mean they will have to find something else to do. There are shrimp and fish farms which will take up some of the slack for restaurants and shrimpers may never get their market share back. Right now they are still shrimping in Texas. It remains to be seen whether they will be able to continue next season.