Largest-Ever Dead Zone 'a Disaster in the Making' for La. Fishermen

Gulf of Mexico 'dead zone' - NASA Image

Paul Quinlan
New York Times

Louisiana's shrimpers expected 2010 to be a good year. Instead, they got the oil spill. Although many found temporary jobs working cleanup for BP PLC, hopes for recovery turned to 2011.

Now the swollen Mississippi River is expected to deliver another heavy blow to a seafood industry already on the ropes: a massive flush of fertilizer, animal manure, treated sewage, pesticide and urban runoff.

Scientists predict this polluted wash will give rise to the Gulf of Mexico's largest-ever "dead zone," a large swath of ocean devoid of fish, shellfish and other marine life.

"It's a disaster in the making," said Clint Guidry, a third-generation Louisiana fisherman and president of the Louisiana Shrimp Association. "Everybody paid their taxes and fixed their boat up, and they were ready to go back to work this year. It's not looking good."

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Massive stretches of weathered oil spotted in the Gulf of Mexico

Image: Mathew Hinton - Times-Picayune

Bob Marshall
The Times-Picayune

Just three days after the U.S. Coast Guard admiral in charge of the BP oil spill cleanup declared little recoverable surface oil remained in the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana fishers Friday found miles-long strings of weathered oil floating toward fragile marshes on the Mississippi Riverdelta.

The discovery, which comes as millions of birds begin moving toward the region in the fall migration, gave ammunition to groups that have insisted the government has overstated clean-up progress, and could force reclosure of key fishing areas only recently reopened.

The oil was sighted in West Bay, which covers approximately 35 square miles of open water between Southwest Pass, the main shipping channel of the river, and Tiger Pass near Venice. Boat captains working the BP clean-up effort said they have been reporting large areas of surface oil off the delta for more than a week but have seen little response from BP or the Coast Guard, which is in charge of the clean-up. The captains said most of their sightings have occurred during stretches of calm weather, similar to what the area has experienced most of this week.

On Friday reports included accounts of strips of the heavily weathered orange oil that became a signature image of the spill during the summer. One captain said some strips were as much as 400 feet wide and a mile long.

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