Echoing throughout the small fishing communities one can hear the voices saying: "I don't know how I'm gonna feed my family, I don't know how I'm gonna pay my bills."
For watermen across the Gulf Coast, waiting is now a way of life. Waiting to see where that massive oil slick will wind. Waiting for the crab and shrimp zones to reopen, which may not happen for years. Waiting to make some money.
In many ways it is a scene reminiscent of the aftermath of Katrina, which tore through these very same fishing communities and seafood harvesting waters in August, 2005.
Now BP officials are trying to find a successful solution to cap the well. Even when or if the company does, there's no telling when fishing will resume.
Dock owners who buy seafood are struggling too. Darlene Kimball, who owns Kimball's Seafood in Pass Christian, Miss., got only half the shrimp she wanted because people were stocking up. Now she's having a hard time unloading it - everyone thinks it's contaminated, she told the Associated Press.
The docks in her town are empty, save for a few fishermen working on their boats.
"A lot of people gonna lose every damn thing over this," said James Raffeo, 54, who manages the dock where boats would typically spend thousands of dollars a day on supplies, ice and diesel fuel.
In a small Louisiana town, ironically named Hopedale, crews have retrieved hundreds of crab traps from near Breton Island, dumping blue crabs, stone crabs and mullet back into the sea because the waters have closed to all fishing.
Hopedale, St. Bernard Parish, LouisianaA few miles closer to the Gulf another community, Buras, La., remains an isolated settlement with no doctor, no school, no pharmacy and no grocery store. After the hurricane, the local diocese closed the Catholic church many in the Asian community, made up mostly of Vietnamese and Cambodians, had attended.
"I don't know how I'm going to pay my car insurance," Cung "Kim" Tran, a deckhand on a commercial fishing boat, declared at a community meeting last Thursday night in Buras. "I don''t know how I'm going to pay the note on my car or my house. Can you tell me what to do?"
Others expressed concern regarding how they were going to buy groceries or fill needed prescriptions, or pay their utility bills.
BP has presented the public face of offering jobs to the watermen to aid in the clean-up and containment of the more than 200,000 gallons of oil that is gushing into the waters everyday.
In order to participate in this effort all crews must be trained in hazardous waste procedures and safety. They asked residents to sign "contracts." Yet, many of the immigrants are still learning English and could not understand all the legalese written on the paper. The "contract" was a liability waiver local residents were asked to sign to enroll in safety and hazardous materials handling courses, required by BP for paid jobs. The waiver caused so much distrust and confusion in Palquemines Parish because many thought they would be signing away their rights to file claims over the spill. The forms were soon dropped.
Many Asian immigrants who have worked in Plaquemines Parish for decades do not own their own boats. Many also moved to New Orleans after losing their homes to Hurricane Katrina, but still return to Plaquemines everyday to work.
"Since Katrina there is no school here for our kids, so we had to move to New Orleans," said shrimper Houston Le, 40. "But I still come here every day, even now with the fishing closed I am coming, but BP says it is only hiring people they say live in Plaquemines." He told a reporter with the Christian Science Monitor. It seems this is Catch 22 all over again.
Now lawyers from all over are flocking to this devastated region. Like sharks in a feeding frenzy. "They come here and go to meetings, drive around and walk up to people asking if they need a lawyer to represent them," said another Southeast Asian fisherman.
These people do not need more lawyers. They do not need volunteers to help them. What they do need is help with everyday bills, food, and medication. Just a helping hand to help them survive this crisis.
For more information about how you can help please visit the following websites:
- For the Buras and Palquemines Parish area - http://www.palqueminesparish.com
- For the Hopewell and St. Bernard Parish area - http://www.sbpg.net
- The Louisiana Department of Social Services (DSS) and the Second Harvest Food Bank Greater New Orleans and Acadiana who are helping to feed so many affected by the event at http://no-hunger.org/Donate.aspx
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