Voices of the Gulf - Fishermen battle the Gulf's oil-stained image

[LTX]

By LOREN STEFFY
Copyright 2010, HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Aug. 16, 2010

FREEPORT — The grouper hits the dock with a "thwap" and a splatter of slime. Its eyes bulge from its head like giant marbles.

Whatever those eyes may have seen when the 50-pound fish was alive, it wasn't oil. Mark Friudenberg wants to make that clear.

"Not to take what's happened in the northern Gulf lightly, but the Texas Gulf is unaffected," said Friudenberg, who owns Captain Mark's Seafood Market just up the street from this dock where a crew is unloading grouper and red snapper from the Delphin II. "People think all the Gulf seafood's contaminated."

That perception has driven his sales down by as much as 30 percent since BP's Macondo well blew out on April 20, spewing oil into the northern Gulf of Mexico and tainting the coastline from Louisiana to Florida. The slick that remains from the now-capped well is more than 200 miles from here, but customers are buying less of Captain Mark's grouper, red snapper, amberjack, shrimp and other Gulf mainstays just the same.

The BP disaster has garnered so much attention, especially stories about the impact on the Gulf Coast seafood industry, that it's scaring away customers. Some restaurants have turned to imports, others have stopped selling seafood all together. As demand has slowed, Friudenberg has been buying less fish for his wholesale and retail businesses, which means the fishermen have been forced to reduce their catches. Boats that would normally bring in 9,000 pounds of snapper a week are now hauling in about 5,000 pounds.

Healthy catches

So far, Friudenberg hasn't laid off any of his six employees, but he has reduced their hours.

The catches themselves, though, are as healthy and prolific as ever. Kono Halia, the captain of the Delphin II, smiled as his five-man crew unloaded the hold, stuffed with a week's haul — 3,000 pounds of grouper and 5,000 pounds of snapper. Halia fishes from here south as far as Port Isabel, an area hundreds of miles from the oil-tinged waters of the northern Gulf. . . .



Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/deepwaterhorizon/7156132.html

[SpiralHawk]

1. "All our stinking, toxic oily mess are belong to you. Smirk." - BP & Halliburton

It's a RepubliCorporate Family Values thing.

[LTX]

2. Didn't even bother with the article, eh?

Just a quick, snarky, fact free conclusion that Gulf fishermen are tools of the "RepubliCorporate Family Values thing." Unfortunately typical.

[SpiralHawk]

3. ...rather that the fishermen are victims of Republicorporate Family Values

As they, and all of us, are...the toxic outcome of this industrial mess will radiate for years and years and years, despite efforts to make it appear as though everything is clean, the 'problem is solved.' Total BS.

It's called reality. Deal with it.

[SidDithers]

4. The reality is that oil went east from the platform blowout...

and the Texas gulf coast is unaffected. It's the perception that people like you perpetuate, that the entire Gulf is fucked, that's causing this fisherman's livlihood to be impacted.

That's the reality you seem to misunderstand so completely.

Sid

[LTX]

5. Odd.

So from an article about healthy Texas Gulf fisheries being hurt by the factually incorrect impression that the entire Gulf has been damaged by the oil spill, you conclude that Gulf fishermen "are victims of Republicorporate Family Values." In short, you seem to be suggesting that Republicans are spreading false stories about healthy Gulf fisheries being polluted in order to hurt Gulf fishermen. A rather striking conspiracy theory - or non sequitur, take your pick.

Then again, maybe you are contending that the entire Gulf of Mexico has in fact been polluted, and that the Texas Gulf fisheries made the subject of the o/p are not healthy. If that's the case, it would be great if you'd come forward with some actual evidence, instead of just apocalyptic soundbites.

[SpiralHawk]

6. Color me unconvinced

Happy talk about how the west region of the Gulf remains pristine sounds to me about as convincing as George AWOL Bush's claims that Iraq had WMDs. You help yourself to all the gumbo you want. I'm taking a pass.

I do in fact blame not the Republicon party itself, but degenerate Republicon Family Pharisee Values for creating the greedy, careless conditions that caused this massive industrial tragedy, and that sustain the overall stinking fog of disinformation around it.

You are welcome to swallow the spin and propaganda along with your gumbo. But I will pass on that, too.

[LTX]

7. So, in short,

you are happy to perpetuate false stories that injure Gulf fishermen. Why is that? Is it because you are too lazy to learn the facts; or is it because you have an agenda that is more important than the facts; or is it because they're just a bunch of redneck Gulf fishermen that don't really matter anyway?

[SpiralHawk]

8. Get a grip on reality, LTX. You are the lazy one...

Gulf oil spill still a threat to seafood, JAMA study indicates Updated at 4:23 PM

Source: McClatchy
You are employing typical republicon propaganda techniques by accusing others of the very things you are guilty of...

That kind of Republicon Family Pharisee jive just don't fly around here.

Gulf oil spill still a threat to seafood, JAMA study indicates

By Fred Tasker | The Miami Herald

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill still poses threats to human health and seafood safety, according to a study published Monday by the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association.

The report comes two days after President Obama and members of his family swam in the Gulf at Panama City Beach and ate fish caught there, and hours after this year's commercial shrimping season officially kicked off along the Louisiana coast.

Federal officials disputed the new report and said ongoing testing is aggressive and sufficient to protect public health.

In the short term, study co-author Gina Solomon voiced greatest concern for shrimp, oysters, crabs and other invertebrates she says are have difficulty clearing their systems of dangerous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) similar to those found in cigarette smoke and soot. Solomon is an MD and public health expert in the department of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco.

In the longer term, she expressed worries about big fin fish such as tuna, swordfish and mackerel, saying levels of mercury from the oil might slowly increase over time by being consumed by fish lower in the food chain and becoming concentrating in the larger fish.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/08/17/99261/gulf-oil-spill-still-a-threat.html#ixzz0wu8uSEvr

[LTX]

9. And where is that threat located?

Did you bother to find out? Is it the Texas Gulf coast? Is there any report that states that Texas Gulf fisheries have been affected? You seem to have the impression that the Gulf of Mexico is the pond at the end of your street. You might want to consult a map.

[SammyWinstonJack]

10. ...

:kick: