Barataria Estuary, Hardest Hit By BP Oil Spill, Sees Steep Decline In Fishing Haul

The Barataria Estuary, hardest hit by the BP oil spill in 2010, has seen a vastly reduced commercial harvest, according to fisherman.

The 2011 commercial fishing data has been released, showing that seafood crops have hit rock bottom in the estuary, which is the very place that some of the thickest oil waves washed in after the Deepwater Horizon blew up, spilling millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf, according to the Associated Press.

They state that in the first full year of fishing since the disaster, the data has revealed that fisherman’s complaints about catches being down and docks going idle, has merit.

The analysis, done by the AP, put together data of “trip tickets” which fisherman must fill out with they unload at docks, have revealed steep drops from fisherman at Barataria, although this is not the same for other areas of the Gulf of Mexico, according to AJC.

So far, it appears that fisherman are still making equal to what they made before the spill, according to the 2011 data, which has not been officially released by the National Marine Fisheries Service. This is because, although the fisherman have not been bringing as much catch, the price of seafood is higher.

According to the data, the number of shrimpers at Barataria has remained steady, but the fall season saw a shortage of around 7 million pounds of shrimp, which normally sees about 18.1 million pounds, according to 2006 to 2009 data. Blue crabs at Barataria were also affected, as the catch, which is normally around 9.5 million pounds, was down by 2.7 million.

AJC reports that Ken Lee, a shrimp dock owner, claims:

“I’m afraid that oil spill has ruined us. We’re hardly unloading any brown shrimp at all.”

Check out more information about the Barataria estuary and the BP oil spill here:

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