USA: Fishermen volunteer to protect coast against oil slick

Record ID: 184413

  • Title: USA: Fishermen volunteer to protect coast against oil slick
  • Date: 2nd May 2010
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF FISHERMAN'S BOATS IN MARINA SHRIMP BOATS IN MARINA FISHERMAN'S BOAT / "AIRBOAT " LEAVING DOCK VARIOUS OF BAYOU
  • Embargoed: 17th May 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Nature / Environment
  • Reuters ID: LVA8N7NCA2WGS9HO8NXYZF3TZZRP
  • Story Text: Hundreds of fishermen came to a school in Boothville-Venice, Louisiana, on Friday (April 30) for a meeting called by Plaquemines Parish (county) to register to be part of the clean-up effort.
    They sat in the school's darkened gymnasium while officials gave a crash course in how to avoid oil poisoning during the clean-up. Their involvement is partly altruistic, but it has another purpose: now that the fishing season has ground to a halt, they need jobs.
    BP is offering contracts to fishermen to use their boats in the clean-up effort.
    Fishermen said they feared much of the clean-up business would in fact go outside of the community.
    That happened in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when a giant storm surge put a community strung out along a narrow peninsula jutting into the Gulf of Mexico under many feet (meters) of water, fishermen said.
    Fishermen say they face hardships due to an immediate loss of income in a part of southern Louisiana dominated by the oil and fishing industries. Several also said they were repaying boat loans worth tens of thousands of dollars and while those boats were insured, the income was not.
    To make matters worse, sport fishing, which provides a secondary income for many commercial fishermen, will also likely be hard hit.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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